PLENTY of chatter at both Casey Cardinia League finals venues over the weekend about the amazing decision to award BERWICK and PAKENHAM home finals. Had the days been swapped all sides would have played at neutral grounds. As it turned out the “home sides” both had convincing victories and the folk associated with losers NARRE WARREN and HAMPTON PARK were left unimpressed with the MPNFL scheduling decision. But that angst obviously had no impact at league headquarters, because the Lions and Wickers will again take in significant home ground advantages this weekend.
INTERESTINGLY, crowds were down on expectations at both Berwick and Pakenham, with one senior club official expressing his disappointment and also proposing a solution. According to our man, the scheduling of the reserves matches as the first game at 9.30am and the under-18s as the curtain-raiser to the seniors is the prime problem. “The authorities have made their point and they should revert to the traditional times, at least for the games leading up to the grand final,” he said. “That plus the ridiculous situation that you can’t have a beer at the local football finals unless you squeeze into a tiny space in the outer is really hurting the competition. We can’t compete with the EDFL or other leagues under those rules. We are seen as the ‘Nanny League’ and now being laughed at.”
THOSE intending to attend Casey Cardinia League finals games be warned: advertised starting times are purely an indication and games may start much earlier than stated. Those who took the 2pm starting time for Sunday’s clash between PAKENHAM and HAMPTON PARK as gospel would have missed most of the first term after the opening whistle was blown at 1.45pm. Game day officials can obviously make their own rules.
GARFIELD stopper Shaun Slama will almost certainly line up for the Stars in this week’s grand final against NEERIM NEERIM SOUTH. Many folk have been asking – who is Shaun Slama? Well, he played in Garfield’s 2004 premiership side and did not reappear until the last round of the home-and-away season this year, when he was picked as a left-field selection for his renowned hardness at the ball. He was overlooked last week when the Stars lost to Neerim, but was rushed back into the side to play CORA LYNN. He lined up on Cobra star Matt Robinson and managed to curb his usual brilliance. In Robinson’s defence, he did carry an ankle injury into the game. Not that Slama will care because he is about to play in his second grand final in only four matches – a unique occurrence.
KOOWEERUP stole a march on opposition EDFL clubs for season 2012 with the appointment of former Doveton champion Justin Hill as playing coach at Denhams Road. Club president Tony Cammarano summed up the feeling at the club in two words: “Very exciting.” After years of high turnover in the senior coaching role, Cammarano hopes the appointment of Hill will bring much-needed stability to the Demons. “Justin’s been a premiership player at Doveton, so that professional approach should rub off on to our younger players,” he said. “We’ve had a quiet 2011 as far as recruiting goes and got some good game time into a lot of our younger blokes. Now what we need is a couple of key position players to help these young blokes.” Having appointed non-playing coaches in recent times, Cammarano thinks Hill’s experience and professional approach to training will make a big difference. “Justin had some great ideas during the interview process, a real professional approach to training and a different way of thinking,” Cammarano said.
TALK of footy restructure went quiet over the past few weeks, with most of the seven EDFL clubs approached by the MPNFL to form a second tier of the Casey Cardinia league either hosting or playing in finals. But WARRAGUL INDUSTRIALS officials put the issue back on the radar with a couple of messages on the electronic scoreboard during Saturday’s preliminary finals at Western Park. The first read: “Say ‘no’ to the MPNFL. Written Gallasch. Spoken Gwynne” (referring to the league secretary and president). Later in the day the official attendance was posted as “4534, plus a couple of MPNFL spies”. MPNFL officials say there was not league presence at Warragul, given the league had finals in its three divisions at the weekend.
THE roaring wind played a determining role in the results of the Casey Cardinia finals. Over the three matches at BERWICK on Saturday, 47 goals were kicked towards the wind-assisted goals, while just 15 goals were kicked into the wind. On Sunday at Pakenham, the reserves and under 18s endured gale conditions before the weather calmed for the seniors.
DEVON MEADOWS joins DOVETON and KEYSBOROUGH on the hunt for a senior coach, with the announcement that Rod Keogh is leaving the Panthers.
THE fluoro vests were out in full force during the Casey Cardinia finals, casting an eager eye over proceedings. One plucky punter jumped the fence just metres from a guard, whose back was turned, before emerging from scrub and casually strolling past the guard, who was none the wiser.
THE NARRE WARREN junior system must be the envy of most Casey Cardinia clubs. Of the recent 16 South East Juniors grand finals, Narre Warren teams featured in 12 deciders for nine premierships. The dominance of the youngsters, many of whom will advance to the Magpies over the ensuring years, further highlights the gap between the haves and the have-nots. While it’s difficult to begrudge the club benefiting from this rich source of talent, clubs such as TOORADIN-DALMORE, KEYSBOROUGH and DEVON MEADOWS lament the lack of available juniors. It must be noted that the NARRE WARREN senior club often sends its stars to conduct clinics with the budding junior footballers. OFFICER, BERWICK, CRANBOURNE and HAMPTON PARK also had representations at the grand finals.
PAKENHAM held its best and fairest awards evening last Friday, with two recruits topping the count. Ex-Catani star Russell Lehman won the senior award from ex-ROC and BEACONSFIELD ruckman Kym Jones.
THE MPNFL vote count will be held on Monday night at the Mornington racecourse. Awards announced include the best and fairest for all three grades, the goalkicking winners, the Casey Cardinia team of the year and the Star News Group young gun. Nominations for this prestigious award include Rian Healy (CRANBOURNE), Jackson Dalton (HAMPTON PARK), Ben King (NARRE WARREN), Daniel Johnston (BEACONSFIELD) and Kristian Meredith (BERWICK).
WARRAGUL has become the first Gippsland League team to have gained a prize recruit for the 2012 – with the return to the club of Ben Hughes. Hughes played his junior football at NILMA DARNUM and GIPPSLAND POWER and a handful of senior games with the Gulls before being drafted as a rookie with the NORTH MELBOURNE Kangaroos in 2006. Over the past three seasons, he has played with AINSLIE, represented the ACT every year and won all-Australian selection in 2010 after a terrific performance in the national championships. This year he had a run with GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY and many folk in Canberra thought he would be picked up by the fledging club. Now 23 and a tall and mobile centre-half-forward, his presence should go a long way towards easing WARRAGUL’s worries in attack. Hughes’ signing comes hot on the heels of the announcement that the Gulls’ 2011 leadership group of Mark Bradley, Matt Gray and Joel Morgan have also committed to 2012.
MOE coach Troy Makepeace has called time on a wonderful senior career that spanned more than a decade. While he was still one of the playmakers of the Gippsland League in recent seasons, he has battled injury and has finally given in to his weary body. Makepeace was drafted by NORTH MELBOURNE in 1999 from GIPPSLAND POWER and played 139 senior AFL games before crossing to CASEY SCORPIONS in 2007. He spent his last three seasons at the Lions, where he started his stellar career.
NAR NAR GOON may not be playing in the senior grand final, but it still goes from strength to strength, much to the chagrin of most clubs in the league. Again on Saturday the Goon will have three teams – its fourths, thirds and reserves – participating in the grand final, which is now becoming common. Since NAR NAR GOON joined the Ellinbank District League in 2005, it has played in 14 grand finals across all five grades and for 11 victories – an amazing success rate. On Saturday, it will have the opportunity to bolster that flag tally by three. For the record, the seniors have played in only the one EDFL grand final and for a win, last season, but the lower grades have excelled. The reserves have two wins from two appearances, the thirds have four from five, the fourths one from three and the fifths three from three.
AS A result of that success, NAR NAR GOON players Nick Fromhold and Phil Dorning will be striving for their seventh straight flag on Saturday in the reserves. Dorning played in the club’s four straight thirds flags from 2005 to ’08, then successive twos flags in 2009-10. He was able to play four years in the thirds by playing up the first year and having a change from under-17s to under-18s midway through. Fromhold won a fourths flag in his first year at the club in 2005, then played in three straight thirds flags and was in the reserves for the back-to-back titles. This year he will play in the side with brother Jackson – who will be hoping for his first flag.
AFTER playing all season, DROUIN reserves coach Paul Alger did the team thing and stepped aside to give a younger charge an opportunity to play finals football on Saturday. With the seniors having bolstered their side against SALE with returnees, it pushed a number of seniors down to the twos and gave the veteran coach a selection dilemma, which he partly solved by removing himself from the line-up. Rumours abound that Alger, who guided CATANI to nine consecutive final appearances, four grand finals and two flags, may be sought by NILMA DARNUM in 2012.
THE hoodoo continued for LEONGATHA when it met MAFFRA. The Parrots went into their elimination final clash against the Eagles well fancied by many tipsters on Sunday, but went down by 49 points. It was their 22nd consecutive loss to MAFFRA. More a case of a gorilla on their backs rather than a monkey.
