From the Centre Bounce is back for another year, with all the latest from the Mininera and District Football League.
IT would be remiss not to mention the passing of one of the best known stalwarts of Mininera football in David Martin.
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David was a Life Member, VCFL Service medallist, Commonwealth Australia sports medallist and held many positions at the Tatyoon Club.
He was one of the contributors who wrote this Mininera league column for a number of years. David kept every copy of the column in the Ararat Advertiser. They are stored in books and will shortly be changed to CD.
Mininera and District Football League is taking local community football and netball into a new era of administration with AFL Victoria Country providing league administration duties across the south west of the state.
The league board has four new members this year and the majority of clubs have also changed their executive positions. This points to the burnout volunteers can suffer with their extra responsibilities during the football season.
The AFL western commission regional manager Lachy Patterson has resigned from the position, and the AFL is seeking a replacement.
The first round games highlighted the teams that may struggle throughout the season beaten by superior clubs on the day with massive wins.
Early favourites to gain a finals berth may be Moyston-Willaura, SMW Rovers, Lismore-Derrinallum and Penshurst with a toss of the coin for Tatyoon or Wickliffe-Lake Bolac for number five.
The strong clubs have recruited some high quality players and I notice one from a much higher standard lining up for the Pumas in 2017, in Billy Laurie.
Laurie, in my opinion, barring injuries or recall, may be looking at a Lewis Medal if he continues his form from previous weeks across the practice matches and in round one.
It is great to see the camaraderie between teams, especially when a player receives a bad injury such as Glenthompson-Dunkeld’s Andrew Fry did in the first game.
Players and trainers from both sides plus a nurse on the boundary attended to him with the game held up for 12 minutes before Fry was moved from the ground to an ambulance and taken to the Hamilton Hospital.
The resultant injury was a cracked vertebrae which will leave the player unavailable for a time. Well done to the key players involved on responding quickly and taking all precautions required.
TIPS – Penshurst v Hawkesdale Macarthur, SMW Rovers v Caramut, Woorndoo-Mortlake v Great Western, Ararat Eagles v Moyston-Willaura, Wickliffe-Lake Bolac v Tatyoon, Lismore-Derrinallum v Glenthompson-Dunkeld.