Above: Berwick goal kicker Ryan Donaldson has told the club he will honour his contract after training with Longwarry recently.GUN forward Ryan Donaldson is staying with BERWICK, according to club president Peter Jensen. Donaldson flirted with a move to EDFL club LONGWARRY, coached by his friend Grant Close, but Jensen said the strong-marking goalkicker was contracted to Berwick and indicated to him last week that he would be staying at Edwin Flack Reserve.
Berwick followers can also expect an influx of youngsters from Darwin, led by ex-AFL star Michael McLean’s sons Mark and Gavin, after the northern season ends. The club is trying to develop a relationship with clubs in Darwin whereby they send down promising young footballers to play with the Casey-Cardinia club in the hope of being noticed by AFL scouts.
Proactive, and good for football if it works.
GIPPSLAND POWER player Craig Flint became the sixth member of the 2006 premiership side to make it on to an AFL list when PORT ADELAIDE picked him up in Tuesday’s NAB AFL Rookie Draft. Flint, who hails from SALE, was selected as the Power’s first-round pick and number 17 overall. Joining Flint in the big league were DANDENONG STINGRAYS Daniel Nichols and Greg Bentley, who went to COLLINGWOOD and CARLTON respectively, making it a total of 11 players from the district’s two teams to make the grade this year.
WHILE POOWONG might think it has secured DEVON MEADOWS pair Rohan Best and Pakenham Gazette Team of the Year member Luke James, a sizable spanner has been thrown into the works by the fact that both are contracted to the Panthers (via a VCFL contract) for 2006. Both are required players at the Panthers and it will be interesting to see how events unfold, given it would be up to Devon Meadows to let them out of that commitment.
On the upside of the Devon Meadows ledger is the recruitment of tough midfielder David Grace from MORDIALLOC, together with RIDDELLS CREEK premiership player Damian Lovett, who has recently moved to the area.
BIG changes to the Victorian country interleague competition have been forced after the sudden withdrawal of both Geelong-based competitions last week. Geelong Football announced that the strong BELLARINE and GEELONG leagues would both be non-starters in next year’s VCFL Country Championships.
Bellarine’s departure left a gap in Pool A, which has been filled by the regrading of this year’s relegated league BALLARAT.
Without Geelong competing in Pool B, the restructure has left only two leagues in that pool, the MPNFL and the HAMPDEN leagues.
After consideration, the VCFL has decided that those two will play a one-off match on the weekend of 27-28 May (under 18s and seniors) hosted by the MPNFL, with the winning senior league being promoted to Pool A.
WHILE on interleague, the MPNFL is tipped to schedule the representative match within the Casey-Cardinia district, most likely at BERWICK. League officials have been privately assessing the accommodation options in the area with a view to using a district venue and now that only one league requires lodgings, the chances of that are greatly enhanced.
WORD from PAKENHAM is that former RICHMOND running player Rory Hilton was all but signed sealed and delivered to the Lions a week ago but pulled the pin at the last moment. According to reserves coach Justin Pearson and club snout Ashes O’Connor, Hilton had been in secret negotiations with Pakenham after departing the Tigers but has decided to return to his home town of EUROA for family reasons.
Despite missing that coup, there is a strong whisper that one or two other big names could be on their way to Toomuc Reserve in 2006.
NEXT year CORA LYNN will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its 1986 West Gippsland Football League premiership win over Pakenham. The Cobras won the flag under master coach Joe Lenders and will announce details of a reunion event in the new year.
The Cobras are also believed to be keen to play their season opening home game against BUNYIP on Sunday, 2 April. Both sides are set to improve in 2006 and it would be a major boost to the Cobras’ coffers given the interest in their recent player pick-ups.
INTERESTING television on Channel 10’s ‘Sports Tonight’ program last week, when SEAFORD coach and former NARRE WARREN nemesis Paul Kennedy was the reporter on a segment about the progress of the Magpies under new coach and former ST KILDA champion Aussie Jones. His memories of Fox Road would have been less than thrilling, given the last time Kennedy ventured to the ground in August 2004, his Tigers were knocked off the top of the then Peninsula League ladder after going down to a pumped-up opponent by five goals. Kennedy reacted savagely to that loss and said his club had not been shown the respect it deserved by the former South West Gippsland clubs in the competition.
Last week’s positive story proved that there were no hard feelings on either side.
TOORADIN has just finished an intense four-week pre-Christmas training program and the good news is that under-18 interest is high at the Westernport oval. An average of 38 players completed the program and with 13 under 18s joining in, creating a positive base to build a side on next year. That and news that KEYSBOROUGH is likely to field a netball side will mean that every club in the Casey-Cardinia League will likely have a full complement of football and netball teams in 2006.
KEYSBOROUGH has boosted its off-field strength with the appointment of former MPNFL directors Bob Beasley and Tony Seals to its committee. The wheel has turned at the Burra in recent weeks after a recruiting spree headed by former AFL midfielder Clinton King and the attitude has become positive after looking bleak in October. On-field results are now the club’s major priority.
WHILE former LONGWARRY coach Scott McQualter will travel to KALGOORLIE to work and possibly play football next year, Ellinbank and District League counterpart Adrian Carr will not be joining him. The word is that Carr will coach NILMA-DARNUM again rather than head west despite being appointed to a coaching position in the gold-mining centre several weeks ago.
