Pakenham’s Stuart Burridge was penalised for one of his best torpedo punts ever on Saturday.The biggest downside of our great game is serious injuries and unfortunately Doveton youngster Dale Kilpatrick suffered a bad one just before halftime against ROC on the weekend. Kilpatrick broke his leg after coming down awkwardly in a marking contest and, after attention from concerned training staff, was carried from the field and transported to hospital in an ambulance. The talented Dove will now miss a big chunk of the season.IT must have been the umpires ‘decision of the week’ despite the men in white saying that they don’t have such a thing.
The (stupid) deliberate outofbounds rule was in vogue on Saturday and paid in very doubtful circumstances by different umpires at three different Casey Cardinia League grounds.
The worst was at TOORADIN when PAKENHAM defender Stuart Burridge ducked, weaved and spun out of a pack with the ball at centre halfback and booted a 50metre torpedo punt to space on an open halfback flank.
When it rolled out of play, the overzealous umpire paid a free kick to the Seagulls for a deliberate action.
Burridge later saw the funny side of it, saying that he had never kicked that far before and was not likely to again.
BERWICK will run a prematch sportsman’s luncheon at the Edwin Flack Reserve on the Friday before its traditional clash against NARRE WARREN on 15 July.
Berwick president Peter Jensen said he was keen to pump the game up and get a good crowd through the gate with the prospect of Wicker coach Ronnie Burns lining up on Magpie counterpart Aussie Jones.
Jensen said the plan was for the two highprofile mentors to attend the lunch to have a chat about the clash and there would also likely be a sports memorabilia auction as well.
More details will follow in coming weeks.
BEACONSFIELD juniors have been transferred off the Perc Allison Reserve for the rest of the year in a bid to preserve the ground for the senior club.
The move came from the Dandenong and District Junior Football League after an outcry from ground curators last week.
The next ground under the pump might just be NARRE WARREN’S lovely mud heap at Fox Road, according to Magpie insiders.
THE MPNFL Sharks interleague side is shaping up well after starting training and officials are confident that the team can win the oneoff match against the Hampden League at the Edwin Flack Reserve on Sunday, 28 May.
Coach Jon Gahan has shown faith in many of his 2005 charges but, as usual, there have been eyebrows raised by the omission of several names including Lincoln Withers, Justin Hill and Lee Clark.
WORD is that DOVETON will be replaced by PAKENHAM as a Casey Cardinia League finals’ venue this year.
The Robinson Reserve has been used as the second venue together with BERWICK for several seasons, however it is believed that the Toomuc Reserve will be announced as the preferred backup venue this year.
THERE is a bit of tension between former DANDENONG STINGRAY Andrew Stent and his current club BERWICK says the grapevine.
Stent wants out of the Edwin Flack Reserve and a clearance to BEACONSFIELD, but apparently there is the issue of a contract with the Wickers to be settled.
A Berwick source said that Stent signed up before the start of the year and the club was not keen to clear him to a rival, especially not the Eagles.
WHILE on things BERWICK related, expect to see super talented big man David Van Diemen back in the senior team very soon after his recent return from an overseas jaunt.
EDFL club and Van Diemen’s spiritual home CORA LYNN is believed to have had a decent crack at securing his services, but his appearance in the reserves on Saturday indicates that he has chosen the Wickers.
TEXT messaging is so normal it is hardly worth mentioning, but it has come to light that one ROC player, who calls himself the ‘GTrain’ has taken to using the system as a method of motivating himself and his teammates before coming matches.
Some interesting ‘headlines’ relating to Doveton players attributed to the lad were sighted before Saturday’s game at Officer.
Pity the Kangaroos didn’t win, we might have used one or two.
TOORADIN officials are privately questioning why the MPNFL has allowed the deterioration of the Agrade netball league this year.
“We were the worst in the world when we couldn’t field under18s last year, so why have they allowed HAMPTON PARK to pull out of Agrade netball without a word?” queried a Seagull member last week.
AN interesting statistic came to light last weekend concerning injured PAKENHAM veteran Travis Murphy.
Murphy missed watching Pakenham play for the first time in 16 years a fortnight ago.
The defender said he just needed some space away from everything to get his head right before he came back.
What did he do on his week off? Went to the footy at TOORADIN of course.
BIG rumour around the traps on the weekend was that BEACONSFIELD star and 2005 league bestandfairest winner Daniel Charles was about to step in and coach BERWICK.
Ronnie Burns’ position is safe however, because it turns out that Charles interest is in the Wickers’ ladies side, with which his wife Cherie plays and booted five goals last weekend.THERE were some concerns at KEYSBOROUGH on Saturday when field umpire Paul Whitehill collapsed during the reserves game after officiating in the under18s earlier that day.
Fears were apparently allayed after he came good with a little rest, but it begs the question should umpires be running in two consecutive matches at this level?
XAVIER Coppeck’s career at CATANI barely lasted longer than a politician’s promise.
Coppeck, who formerly played at KILCUNDABASS and INVERLOCH, has left to play with MARIBYRNONG PARK.
Word has it that Coppeck was told he would be overlooked for senior selection at the Blues until his fitness levels picked up.
Despite close ties with Gippsland over many years, Coppeck departed for the innercity club that is closer to his residence and employment.
CATANI has snared young CORA LYNN midfielder Daniel Strahan pending a clearance.
Strahan, a regular fixture in the Cobras’ seniors last season, is a promising type who wanted to join his brother Phil, currently playing in the Blues thirds.
Should the clearance be granted, he is still many weeks off top fitness, having missed preseason training.
In other news from the Blues camp, classy rover Justin Evans, who broke his leg for the third time last season, is making a steady recovery.
However the club will not take undue risks with the plucky rover and aims to have him ready for the latter part of the season.
IT WAS a moving day for LONGWARRY livewire Danny Wells on Saturday.
His grandmother, Margaret, passed away on the eve of the match against CATANI, but the grieving youngster still played a slashing game in memory of his numberone fan.
At threequarter time and with the game still in the balance, Danny’s father, Bernie, took centre stage and addressed the players’ huddle, inspiring the Crows to space Catani in the last quarter.
The feeling carried over at the end of the game with the tightknit Crows embracing each other and singing a rousing rendition of their club song on field before trekking back to the change rooms.
YOU could have written your own ticket on BULN BULN playing out a draw against ELLINBANK last Saturday.
Last time the two met at the tail end of last season, the Bankers came from behind to snatch two points for a tie with the score reading 12.7.79 to the Lyrebirds 11.13.79.
Last Saturday it was Buln Buln who snared the last goal of the game to square things up at 49 points apiece.
That makes it successive draws between the two rivals.
IT looks like at least two AFL clubs have their priorities wrong when it comes to local PR.
BERWICK Junior Football Club officials contacted several clubs recently in an attempt to get some players to training to meet the kids and take a drill or two, but only COLLINGWOOD was keen to oblige.
CARLTON bluntly said ‘no’, while new Waverley Park residents HAWTHORN, which has been spruiking itself as wanting to get out into the community, indicated it was not interested.
The Magpies were happy to help out, however, and players attended training at Arch Brown Reserve last night.
Obviously future membership is not an issue to either the Hawks or Blues.
NAR NAR GOON has tried hard to lure new players, but with little success this year.
However it appears to have picked up two handy types in Michael Epstein and Jason Rantall.
Epstein, a mature player in his 30s, last played football at FERNTREE GULLY and was on CATANI’S list last season without playing a game.
Rantall, an onballer, hails from LYNDALE, while his other claim to fame is being part of the successful TV side the ‘HAMMERHEADS’ that won the premiership in the Western Region League a few seasons back.
NINETEENyear old ruckrover Josh O’Brien has returned to NEERIM NEERIM SOUTH.
O’Brien, who played at NILMADARNUM last season, left the league to go to Cairns for employment, but after a month in the far north, the pacy utility has opted to come back to his family in Victoria and play alongside his brother Corey at the Cats.
Former WGLFL best and fairest Matt Irwin has also recently returned to the Cats after a year in Darwin.
Irwin came back to play a match a few weeks ago for the club, but missed the past two weeks, having returned to Darwin to reorganise his relocation back to Gippsland.
WE may only be onethird into the season, but we wish we had a gold coin for everyone who has suggested that the top six in the Ellinbank League will not change.
The issue here is that with a final five, it appears that, on present form, one of CATANI, BUNYIP or KOOWEERUP will miss out.
Seventhplaced BULN BULN may have a big say in proceedings as well.
Brent Eastwell’s charges are still in touch and play Kooweerup this week in a crunch game for both clubs.
Gazing into the crystal ball, it appears the Demons have the toughest run home, having to play all top five sides.
On current form, Peter Bastinac’s boys would be at short odds to be the side to miss.
