Community sport was unpredictable and often chaotic in 2021, with the Navarre FNC forced to fight through a number of challenges throughout their season.
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Despite the stop-start nature to the season there was still time for the club to score some highlights, with some of the junior squads showing strong signs for the future.
FOOTBALL
As Navarre said goodbye to a frustrating 2021 season they have reason to be positive as they look towards 2022.
With the MCDFNL like other leagues calling a halt to the season before finals could commence, the league announced that they would award minor premierships to the teams currently on top of the ladder.
Without teams having completed a full round of matches against one another this has proven bittersweet for some.
Harcourt, for example finished on top of the senior football ladder with only two per cent separating them from second placed Trentham , who they never faced through the completed home and away matches.
Navarre meanwhile were stranded in ninth on the senior table, without having played the two bottom-placed sides.
While its reasonable to expect Navarre's senior footballers would have only played bit parts in any finals action this season, their Under-11.5 and 14.5 squads were priming themselves for September action.
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With seven players set to move up a grade from both teams the young Grasshoppers will be looking to regroup and set sail again into 2022.
The young Grasshoppers scored some big wins through the years and showed some promising signs for the future.
They also had some players poll well in the MCDFNL best and fairest award, with Bradley Carter totaling 30 votes on his way to third and Heath Senior racking up seven votes of his own.
In the Under-11.5s MCDFNL vote count, Angus Stewart polled 21 votes to finish tied fifth, just six votes behind the winners.
Kenna Lorusso also scored 14 votes and Morgan Greenaway grabbed eight votes of his own.
With their own vote counts now planned as online events over the coming weeks, the Grasshoppers are hoping that an easing of restrictions over the coming weeks will enable a presentation and family day at some point later this year.
Football vice-president Barry Fletcher said that while the stop-start nature of the season and the way in which it ended was disappointing, it was a positive to have everyone back involved at the club after the year off in 2020.
"It was no small feat to kick things off again this year after having the whole season off in 2020, and it was great to get everyone back at the club, whether as players, supporters or volunteers", he said.
"We already have some exciting plans coming together both on and off the field heading into 2022 which we hope to announce soon".
NETBALL
It was a tough season on the court across the Navarre FNC with the 11 and Under netball squad leading the way.
The squad managed four wins and seven losses, enough for seventh on the ladder.
The shining lights in the team was Eadie Hans who scored 18 votes, enough for tied fourth and Laura Martin who six votes in the MCDFNL vote count.
In the 13 and Under, the squad scored one win on their way to twelfth on the ladder, and in the 15 and Under they also grabbed just the one win.
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The 17 and Under squad scored just one win in 2021, but some of their players stood out from the pack and polled well in MCDFNL voting.
Ella McLoughlin finished sixth after polling 16 votes and Chloe Moloney scored 11 votes from the season.
Across the three senior Navarre netball grades, there was just six wins shared in 30 games.
The A Grade finished eleventh on the ladder, with two wins and eight losses.
The highlight of the A Grade Grasshoppers season came in round two when the squad broke a 21-round losing streak with a narrow five-goal win over Lexton.
The B Grade managed just one win in the season, when they defeated Talbot by nine goals in round eight.
Despite falling short in their other games, the B Grade squad were rarely blown out of the water and showed some good signs of development heading towards 2022.
Finally, the Navarre C Grade scored three wins in 2021, enough for ninth place on the ladder.
Their best win came against Talbot when they scored a dominant 40-14 win in round eight.
The MCDFNL official cancelled their 2021 season after the Victorian Government released their COVID roadmap in September.
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