-Despite being on a four game winning streak, BERWICK is on the hunt for a new senior coach in the Eastern Football Netball League, meaning the signature of current coach Clint Evans will be hot property in the coming months. The club has struggled on-field since moving to the EFNL, with 13 wins, 27 losses and a draw since the beginning of 2021, but Evans’ credentials are well-established in the region as a premiership coach at BEACONSFIELD in 2014. KOOWEERUP, WARRAGUL INDUSTRIALS and BUNYIP are all clubs on the hunt for a new head coach in the West Gippsland Football Netball League, as are OLINDA FERNY CREEK in the Outer East.
-The Southern Football Netball League has announced where the big games will be played this year. Cranbourne will grace the same turf it won the premiership on last year this September, with RSEA Park, Moorabbin, to host the Division 1 finals once again. Those will be held from 2-3 September through to 23 September. In Division Two, Doveton will have to return to the scene of last year’s heartbreak, with Ben Kavanagh Reserve, Mordialloc, again hosting the Division 2 finals. They will take place from 26-27 August through to 16 September. The Division 3 finals will be at Skye, the Division 4 finals at Heatherton and the women’s finals will be held down the road at Endeavour Hills.
-We should know the whereabouts of this year’s WGFNC finals venues pretty shortly with Brett Tessari and the crew at headquarters close to a decision. Widely regarded as the best ground in the league, GARFIELD would appear to be out of the mix this year as its netball facility undergoes a significant renovation. It will be a tough decision, because quite a few grounds are in pretty good nick at the moment…surviving the first half of winter very well.
-It was great to catch up with well-respected figure and premiership coach Ben Soumilas at NAR NAR GOON on Saturday. ‘Souma’ was at the Goon watching his beloved INVERLOCH-KONGWAK, but also doubled up as field umpire in the twos. Soumilas was also on dad duties, looking after his boy Joseph after he suffered a game-ending knock to the head during the third quarter of the seniors. Soumilas was great to talk to, and all smiles, until Footy Shorts reminded him of the Sea Eagles elimination final loss to WARRAGUL INDUSTRIALS last year. Sorry to ruin the mood, Ben!
-Despite playing at Toomuc Reserve on Saturday, PAKENHAM was forced to don its white clash jumpers while travelling opponents MT EVELYN wore its traditional maroon and white. Outer East FNL by-laws state “Where a new club/team enters Outer East Football Netball and it’s playing uniform clashes with an existing club’s uniform, it will be incumbent on the newly entering club to provide and wear a clash uniform when competing in matches against an existing club/team”. But as the astute Phil Anning asked, if the whole competition was formed when the South East Football Netball League merged with Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League, that would mean that both sides entered the league at the same time, so how is the ‘existing club’ determined?
-PAKENHAM paid its respects to one of the great blokes in football on Saturday with the Neil ‘Polly’ Poulton Memorial Round. Neil was head trainer at the Lions for a number of years, but was also one of the great characters that every sporting club aspires to have. All players wore red socks on the day with all proceeds going to the Heart Foundation. The Poulton family also handed out best-on-ground medals on the day with Jake Barclay (seniors), Daniel Peart (reserves) and Chloe Nagel (women’s) taking out this year’s awards. Neil Poulton died of a heart-attack, just shy of his 50th birthday, while walking his dog in 2019.
-It must be one of the great turnarounds in sport. Just six weeks after losing to KILCUNDA-BASS by 127 points, KORUMBURRA-BENA defeated the Panthers by six points on Saturday. Coach Paul Fermanis is doing a great job with a small core of experienced players, who are leading a plethora of youngsters in grand style. Fermanis took on the job at late notice, and has now won two in a row – and three for the season – in a great reward for effort.
-A couple of nice milestones took place on the weekend with KOOWEERUP star Tim Miller playing his 150th senior game for the Demons and TOORADIN-DALMORE hard-nut Andrew Proctor playing game 100. Miller has won three best and fairests with the Demons and has been captain since 2018, and had played 274 senior games, beginning at LAKE WENDOUREE, CARNGHAM-LINTON and NIGHTCLIFF, before moving to the Demons. Meanwhile, Proctor personifies the toughness and resilience required to succeed at community sport. Well done Timmy and Proc…two much-loved members of their footy clubs.
-It’s great to see a thumping long kick from full back and there were two that stood out on the weekend. BEACONSFIELD star Brandon White launched one beyond the centre circle against WANTIRNA SOUTH, while CORA LYNN coach Shaun Sparks delivered a beauty during a thrilling last quarter against TOORADIN-DALMORE. Sparks kicked long to Jeremy Monckton in the centre square, who then found Tristan Warkuss, who then delivered a perfect pass to Nathan Gardiner in the goal-square. It took just 13 seconds to get the ball from the boot of Sparks into Gardiner’s hands.
-Good to see our local clubs get behind TAC Road Safety round on the weekend. The state wide initiative seeks to raise awareness about traffic trauma, with HAMPTON PARK doing its bit on Saturday, recognising it on their apparel, and DINGLEY changing the colour scheme of their logo on Sunday to match that of the round.
-An announcement last week from the City of Greater Dandenong that deep fryers will be phased out of sporting clubs has some concerned about the bottom line. The move has come about with healthy eating front of mind, but it is going to be hard for some, who have long associated footy with chips, potato cakes and fried dimmies. Not all is lost though – clubs are going to be encouraged to use air fryers, but the return directly to club profit on those sales will be less.
-Interestingly, there were major media outlets in the region on the weekend to get the inside word from the clubs about how the change would affect them. But it was amusing to hear a couple of media outlets sent personnel to DOVETON DOVES, a club in the City of Casey, so unaffected by the City of Greater Dandenong’s decision.
-A little interesting one from the DANDENONG STINGRAYS. The Rays girls coaching box each week has a scribe, who writes down some of the talking points from each of the coaches during the quarter. It is then their job to deduce the key themes of that quarter, to assist senior coach Josh Moore, and his assistants, with the delivery of messages at each of the breaks. It’s niche, it’s modern, and it ensures that the girls receive timely and appropriate feedback, with nothing forgotten about in the chaos of the moment. But certainly, there would be some coaches around that would prefer to treat the box like Las Vegas…what happens, and is said in there, stays in there.
-HAMPTON PARK coach Hayden Stanton’s post game speeches to the two teams in the social rooms are always compelling listening. Regardless of the result, he has a way of respecting the opposition and having everyone in the room in raptures about his chosen theme of discussion. It’s interesting keeping an eye on his son, Tanner Stanton during those speeches…he must always be on edge wondering what is going to come out of Dad’s mouth.
-Congratulations to CRANBOURNE’S Glenn Osborne who will bring up 200 career games this weekend against St Paul’s McKinnon. He’s been an important player over a long period for the Eagles and was part of the premiership-winning team last year. Often in the shadow of his brother, Brandon, Glenn has stepped up in recent weeks in the skipper’s absence. Read next week’s edition for a more comprehensive story on the stalwart.
-Good to see GIPPSLAND POWER draft prospect Zane Duursma get another run with the Casey Demons on the weekend. Playing in his natural half-forward position, he showed a little bit, playing against men and with star Brodie Grundy, he accumulated 10 touches and three marks. It’s his second outing this season for the Dees.
