Droop

Back to the future at Newborough

FOOTBALL

CRAIG Skinner has been appointed senior coach of Newborough Football-Netball Club for 2022. Skinner (pictured) returns t o t h e B u l l d o g s h a v i n g previously coached the club for three seasons, winning premierships in 1999 and 2000. More recently he coached juniors at Moe in the under 18 and under 16 age bracket. He was awarded the Victorian Australian Football Coaches Association Youth Coach of the Year in 2010 for his work with Newborough Junior Football Club. His son Alex was senior captain of Newborough this season. Skinner takes over from Peter Ainsworth, who has coached for the previous two seasons.

Ramayer appointed as coach of Lions

NETBALL

By LIAM DURKIN

MOE netballers will have a familiar face calling the shots next season, with Ramayer Gourley appointed coach of the Lions A Grade side. Gourley will make the transition from playing assistant coach to the top job, taking over from the departing Peter Moody. Moody leaves after spending four years at the helm, during which time Moe won a premiership (2018), made a preliminary final (2019) and claimed the minor premiership this season to go with an overall win-rate of 75 per cent. Gourley came to the Lions this season, in what was a huge coup for the club given her credentials and standing as one of the best players in the Gippsland League. The defender previously played for Traralgon, where she won no shortage of league awards, including grand final best on court honours twice and a place in the leagues team of the year four times. Adding to that, she also represented Vic Fury in the Australian Netball League. In taking on the role, Gourley said she was looking forward to what was ahead. “I’m very excited, I haven’t been an A Grade coach or head coach anywhere so I’m really keen,” she said. “I loved my first season here, we had a really good year and the girls were really lovely and welcoming … I really like the culture that they’ve built. “I think that’s really important to me to keep up the integrity of what we’re putting out there for the club.” With Moody indicating this would be his last season, Gourley said a transition plan had been in the works for virtually the entire 2021 season. “Pete and I discussed it pretty early on that it was an option (me coaching) and we’ve been touching base all through the season trying to prepare for it,” she said. “He knew he wanted to take a step back - he was travelling heaps.” The new coach said she would be looking to draw on her experiences playing under high profile coaches such as Kristy Birrell and Elissa Kent in helping the team further along. “I love taking drills that I’ve learnt in Melbourne and bringing them down here,” she said. “It is really rewarding for the girls once they get it.” Given the common football adage determines that those who played in the back pocket end up making the best coaches because they’ve seen the whole field, it will be interesting to see if the same applies in netball considering Gourley’s position in the defensive third. In preparing for season 2022, Gourley said she would be expecting her charges to play with what she described as “relentless intensity”. There might be an interesting authoritydynamic at Moe next season, with Ramayer set to coach her sister Taylin. The Lions new coach however said she didn’t expected there to be too much drama. “We’re pretty chill and I pretty much do it (coach her) all the time anyway,” she said laughingly. It will be a coaching couple at Moe, as Gourley’s partner Declan Keilty was recently appointed the Lions new senior football coach.

Decision day draws closer

FOOTBALL/NETBALL

By LIAM DURKIN

THIS coming Thursday will be D-Day for the Gippsland League. Should an announcement not be made by the state government by then allowing a return to play for Saturday, September 25, the 2021 season will be cancelled for senior and junior competitions. Time is running out for any such resemblance of a finals series to be played, as AFL Victoria’s COVID framework requires a 14-day training period once return to play is granted. Because of this, it looks like if there will in fact be any finals football in the Gippsland League, the only option is to have the top-two teams play each other for the title of premier. That option in itself calls into question the very concept of what would constitute a worthy premiership winner, with any such ‘victory’ unlikely to hold much significance in years to come, especially considering Gippsland League players have not even played in more than two months. While the league and clubs have been working under immense pressure with the rolling issue of lockdowns either being extended or lifted, there is a feeling among most players that the time has well and truly come to officially put a red line through the season for the simple reason that the majority of people don’t see any point in continuing. The league and nine of the 10 member clubs had previously committed to playing the last homeand-away round with restrictions in place for the weekend of August 21. All looked set in motion before disaster struck and community sport was halted on the Friday night beforehand. Had matches gone ahead that weekend, games would have been played in front of no crowds and players based in Melbourne would not have been able to travel. Junior teams in the Gippsland League got onto the park the week before, but their joy was shortlived as they were met with the same fate as their senior counterparts six days later. The league abandoned its final home-and-away round recently, meaning a compromised fixture as all teams were still one round short of playing each other once. Should grand finals be played, it will be a South Gippsland showdown in senior football between Leongatha and Wonthaggi. The Power are yet to win a title in the Gippsland League as a merged entity (Wonthaggi Blues Decisions decisions: The Mid Gippsland Football-Netball League could call its season off when it meets tonight. photograph tom gannon and Wonthaggi Rovers combined in 2005), which presents a truly bizarre set of arrangements in which Wonthaggi might claim a maiden flag. If there happens to be an A Grade netball grand final, Moe and Leongatha will face off. The Lions could well become the first team in sporting history to play a grand final without a coach, as Moe coach Peter Moody is based in Melbourne. THE Gippsland League and Mid Gippsland Football-Netball League are the only two leagues left in Gippsland not to have abandoned their season. Mid Gippsland has previously said Saturday, October 2 is the cut-off date for a grand final. The MGFNL is meeting tonight to decide on its best course of action. CHRISTMAS might be coming early for junior footballers. Provided restrictions are further eased, the Central Gippsland Junior Football League has announced it will play a finals extravaganza starting this Friday. Semi-finals will be played between the top four teams (first versus fourth, second versus third) on Friday, with the winners to progress to the grand final two days later. The CGJFL said this was the preferred option of member clubs. “This scenario gets the finals over and finalised in case of another lockdown and also gives families a chance to get away for the school holiday period,” it said in a statement. “If restrictions aren’t eased enough for this to happen next weekend then we will go for just grand final options where first plays second. This again was passed by all clubs with similar reasons in mind. “Our next option for this will be on Friday, September 24 (AFL Grand Final public holiday) and if restrictions are still not eased enough by then our absolute last chance to play a grand final would be on Sunday, October 3. “Hopefully this gives all our remaining participants clarity and although it won’t please everyone we were very keen to try and salvage something of the year if we could.”

Race for prized medal an open one

FOOTBALL

GIPPSLAND LEAGUE By LIAM DURKIN

WITH the regular season over in the Gippsland League, the awarding of best and fairest medals might become a point of interest for those involved. Although only 10 home-and-away games will count toward the voting, the Gippsland League has committed to acknowledging players efforts this season. Sale’s Shannen Lange looks to be a good show of winning the award, and has featured in the Magpies best players seven times this season. Lange has also topped the votes in the most valuable player award, which is decided upon by the coaches of the match in a 3,2,1 format. The midfielder secured 11 MVP votes this season, ahead of Traralgon’s Matt Northe and Drouin’s Ed Morris. Northe has had a terrific season for the Maroons, regularly collecting 30 or more touches a game and showing his ability to impact the scoreboard with 16 goals from his 10 games. On six occasions this year Northe has been in the top three best players listed for Traralgon, and he has also demonstrated his leadership skills standing in for injured skipper Dylan Loprese from Round 7 onwards. Kristian Jaksch appears to be Moe’s best chance of claiming the medal, and should attract votes in the games he kicked bags of eight against Leongatha and six against Bairnsdale. Given he kicked eight of his side’s 13 goals in a losing effort against Leongatha in Round 9, there will be genuine head shakes if he isn’t given the three votes for that performance. Jaksch, who slotted 36 goals in 10 games this season, has the JC Lawless Award wrapped up for the league’s leading goal kicker - the first Moe player to win the award since Matt Forys in 2002. Others expected to poll well are Wonthaggi brothers Jarryd and Jack Blair and fellow midfielder Aiden Lindsay, as well as Leongatha pair Aaron Heppell and Tom Marriott, for whom the award has become affectionately known as ‘Marriott’s Medal’. Parrots ruckman Ben Willis remains a smokey as for whatever reason, he always seems to place highly in the league vote count stakes.

THE VALLEY’S TROOD AWARD AND RODDA MEDAL WINNERS

Traralgon: Noel Alford (1956), Terry Hunter (1966), George Brayshaw (1967), Peter Hall (1977), Peter Hall (1984), Jim Silvestro (1986, 1987), John McDonald (1990), Greg Morley (1992, 1998, 2003), Neil Robertson (1997), Michael Geary (2009). Morwell: Steve Szabo (1960, 1965), Henri Kornacki (1972), David Vogel (1978, 1982), Rod Kerr (1985), Adam Bailey (2014). Moe: Lester Ross (1958), Alan Steel (1963), Barry Rowlings (1973, 1974), Lachlan Sim (1988), Jason Shields (2000), James Blaser (2017). Yallourn Yallourn North: Ric Belford (1962 with Yallourn), Mike Collins (1964 with Yallourn), Ray Mildenhall (1981, 1983). Trafalgar: Les Hawkin (1968).

Solid season: Moe’s Kristian Jaksch (right) already has the Gippsland League goal kicking sown up and is expected to poll well in the Trood Award and Rodda Medal. photograph tom gannon The reserves vote count will also carry some interest, with onlookers surely keeping an eye on the type of player who ends up winning. While it is said the Brownlow Medal has become a midfielder’s award, one could argue the Gippsland League reserves best and fairest has become a ruckman’s award. Recent winners have been James Heslop (Moe, 2018), Chris Rump (Leongatha, 2017), Macklin Raine (Maffra, 2015) and Will Joplin (Wonthaggi, 2013) - all ruckman. The Gippsland League senior best and fairest receives the Trood Award and Rodda Medal, named after former Sale player Victor Trood and Morwell’s Fred Rodda. Trood, who played 41 games for University in the VFL, donated the award in 1928 and continued to do so for many years. He went on to become the inaugural president of the Latrobe Valley Football League (Gippsland League) in 1954, and was inducted as a life member of the league in 1959. Rodda tragically died from internal injuries in 1935, leading the then Central Gippsland Football League to rename its best and fairest award the Rodda Medal the following season. After the CGFL disbanded and the remaining clubs joined the LVFL, the names Trood and Rodda were enshrined onto the one award.