SUPPORTERS of the Casey Cardinia and Ellinbank leagues will have the opportunity to watch both grand finals this year. The decision to schedule both leagues’ grand finals on the same day caused much angst last year with the absence of cross-over supporters potentially affecting gate takings. It promises to be a big couple of weeks in the district with football enthusiasts able to attend the Ellinbank grand final on 10 September and the Casey Cardinia decider on 24 September. Other grand final options include the Gippsland league (24 September), the MPNFL Nepean division (17 September) and the MPNFL Peninsula division (24 September).
THE CRANBOURNE coaching panel is benefiting from the social network of Matthew Fletcher. The gun forward recruited his mate, Michael Theodoridis to the Eagles this year. Theodoridis, a Victorian basketball representative, has been a revelation in Cranbourne’s star forward line. Since making his debut in round eight, Theodoridis has played every game in the Cranbourne seniors and kicked 12 goals, including five against BERWICK on Saturday. He suffered an ACL injury in 2009, but basketball’s loss is football’s gain. “They’re pretty good mates. He (Theodoridis) copped a walloping on Thursday night from Fletcher, so I don’t know how close they are now,” Cranbourne coach Doug Koop joked. “We were doing a few forward set-ups and Theodoridis was on Fletcher and Fletcher gave him a few whacks on the ears. (Theodoridis) has been outstanding for us, he’s given our forward line an extra sparkle.” The club will be hoping Fletcher can mend his friendship with Theodoridis, as well as invite more friends down to the club next year.
WORD is that KEYSBOROUGH officials formally met the Southern Football League recently. The SFL has reportedly offered the club its choice of competing in division one or two. The strong form of the seniors, who have won three of their past four matches, is clouding the club’s hierarchy decision to move leagues, but there are several peripheral issues that will come into play.
FORMER Casey Cardinia players are producing excellent football in their new leagues. Ex-BEACONSFIELD trio Ben Collins, Kane Airdrie and Ryan Donaldson (54 goals) are starring with MOE, while former KEYSBOROUGH big man Greg Walker has kicked 25 goals with premiership favourite SPRINGVALE DISTRICTS. Others to impress are BORONIA’s Jason Heath (ex-BERWICK), ST ALBANS 50-goalkicker Aaron Henneman (ex-DEVON MEADOWS), GEMBROOK-COCKATOO’s defender Nathan Brown (ex-PAKENHAM) and ST PAULS forward Chad Liddell (ex-TOORADIN-DALMORE).
TOORADIN-DALMORE took extra incentive into its clash with rivals DEVON MEADOWS. The Seagulls lost one of their champion clubmen with the passing of Andrew Kane, who gave tremendous hard work and hours to the club. Over his time with the Seagulls, Kane filled many positions including coach, committee member and umpire. The funeral will be held today at Boyd Chapel, Springvale Botanical Cemetery.
ONE interested spectator at CORA LYNN on Saturday was former goal kicking star Beau Runnalls. The spearhead, who just missed out on cracking the ton in the EDFL last year, also starred in the Northern Territory FL over summer but left the Cobradome this season to play with GRIFFITH in the Riverina league. Runnalls hopes to sign a contract with his New South Wales club for another two seasons but it is contingent on the club finding him some employment, which is not bedded down yet. If the discussions fall through, Runnalls said he would entertain a return to the district but before CORA LYNN gets too excited, he also said he harboured an ambition to play football with his younger brother, Matt, who plays at GARFIELD, where Beau played as a youngster.
VFL team the CASEY SCORPIONS will not be too happy. It released David Collins to play alongside his brother, Ben, the assistant coach of MOE on Saturday but the hard-running midfielder suffered a kidney injury in a marking duel that saw him taken to hospital and his season may now be in doubt. From all reports the contact with Collins was late and his brother Ben remonstrated with the treatment by his WONTHAGGI opponent that saw him sent off. Playing one man short for 15 minutes appeared to tax the Lions, who were a spent force in the last quarter and conceded eight goals – a big hit to their finals aspirations. Both Collins brothers, along with their high-flying younger brother Mitch now making waves at MULGRAVE, all played together in CORA LYNN’s 2008 premiership team.
KEEP a big watch on LEONGATHA rising star Aaron Heppell. So says his coach and former FOOTSCRAY and MELBOURNE forward Adrian Campbell. Heppell returned to the Parrots seniors on Saturday after playing for the Vic Country under-16 team over the past month and was widely acknowledged as best on ground. And yes – he is the younger brother of ESSENDON star Dyson, who is a hot favourite to win the AFL Rising Star award. “Smart thinking, clever and he delivers the ball well. He is not as tall as his brother but his skills are just as clean,” said Campbell, waxing lyrical about his young tyro on Sunday.
A FEW top teams breathed a sigh of relief with NAR NAR GOON’s loss to CORA LYNN on Saturday, which has all but killed off its back-to-back flag prospects. You have to admit though, that the Goon is tad unlucky. A tough draw and six losses will now ensure it will not take part in the finals action. A breakdown of its losses reveals it biggest loss was by 20 points to BUNYIP in round 10 when it was injury riddled. While the Goon’s narrow loss to Cora Lynn on Saturday probably sealed its fate, the round 12 loss to NEERIM NEERIM SOUTH by only three points proved equally costly. How many teams would have failed to make the top six with a percentage of more than 200?
AT THE bottom end of the ladder NYORA and NILMA DARNUM are waging their own interesting battle to avoid “winning” the dreaded wooden spoon. After round 15 only 0.5 percentage points separated the two and after last Saturday only 0.3 splits the Saints from the Bombers. Both teams have three matches to play but NILMA faces out-of-touch KOOWEERUP in the last round of the season and on form, the Bombers may not need to rely on percentage to jump up to 14th on the table.
CONGRATULATIONS to former CORA LYNN goal-kicking machine Darren Sheen, who kicked 10 for HEATHMONT in the Eastern District Football League on Saturday against FOREST HILL to pass the 100-goal milestone for the season. Aside from a few late season reserves appearances with BEACONSFIELD in 2010, Sheen stood aside from football last season. He joins another EDFL star, Luke James, formerly of POOWONG and CATANI, in breaking the ton this season. James passed the 100-goal mark the previous week in the Alberton league when he kicked nine goals against TOORA.
WE’VE heard NYORA’s end-of-season players fund took a hit recently. Apparently the Saints backed themselves to beat CATANI but didn’t get the job done. The Saints started well with the opening three goals and the scores were tied up at three-quarter-time but the Blues finished the stronger. Looks like a local trip rather than an interstate shebang for the Saint boys.
NILMA DARNUM assistant coach Shane Paynter has been busier than most in recent weeks. Having to take over the Bombers’ coaching duties twice in recent weeks while coach Brad Sinclair attended to his father, who is in intensive care at the moment, Paynter not only played a full reserves game against the DUSTIES on Saturday but because of late withdrawals he had to front up again in the seniors. Sinclair has a two-year contract with NILMA but should he opt out for family reasons in 2012, Paynter looks as though he will be first in line, should the main job be readvertised.
Gippsland League is contemplating including a girls competition next season that could involve four clubs. General manager Chris Soumilas said early discussions between the AFL and the Gippsland League were looking promising but no firm decisions had been made. He said he envisaged the age group would be between 13 and 18 years and games would be played on a Sunday morning. Drouin, Moe and Warragul have expressed interest while Traralgon has the names of 30 potential players. Mr Soumilas said anyone interested in playing or assisting in any way, should contact him on 0419 328 351.
