By Paul Daffey
Adelaide rookie Rhys Archard appears unlikely to see out the season with his home club, Echuca, despite the best efforts of the Goulburn Valley Football League club to secure a late clearance.
Archard, a 2001 and ’02 premiership player with Echuca, left his home town before the 2006 season to play with SANFL club South Adelaide. The nimble midfielder won the Panthers’ best-and-fairest award and was placed on the Adelaide rookie list before this season.
Early in the season, the 24-year-old was pressing for a call-up to the Crows’ senior list before injuring his hamstring. Another hamstring injury in the middle of the season effectively killed off his chances of making his AFL debut.
Archard expressed a wish to return home after clearances had closed on June 30. Echuca tried to gain a clearance from both the Crows and South Adelaide under an “extraordinary circumstances” clause.
His circumstance was that South Adelaide had failed to find him a job. Archard is now back in Echuca working for his former employer in the insurance industry.
He has reportedly let go of his AFL dream and is set to play in the bottle green guernsey of Echuca again next season.
Archard’s former Echuca teammates Scott McGlone, who is a former Sydney rookie, and Josh Maddox both continue to play in the midfield for South Adelaide. Another former teammate, Kristan Height, is the captain of VFL club Box Hill Hawks.
Andrew Walker plays in defence for Carlton, while another former Ehuca teammate, Djaran Whyman, recently made his AFL debut with the Kangaroos.
Echuca this year was tipped to finish near the bottom of the Goulburn Valley league ladder after an exodus of senior players. But the Murray Bombers go into today’s match against Shepparton in fourth place, a game behind Shepparton Swans.
Key forwards Brad Smith and Sean Murphy are enjoying fine seasons, while the 2006 coach, Dylan Butler, and the 2006 Morrison medallist for the best-and-fairest in the competition, Colin Durie, have been in sparkling form in the midfield.
Another Morrison medallist, Steven Orr, is Echuca’s non-playing coach.
Today’s match of the round in the Goulburn Valley league is between Shepparton United, which is on top, and Seymour, which is second.
Haydn Robbins, a firebrand with Melbourne and Richmond before becoming a legendary player in the West Gippsland region, has agreed to part ways with Beaconsfield after coaching the Eagles for two years.
Robbins played in four premierships with Beaconsfield and twice kicked more than 100 goals before taking the reins as coach before the 2006 season. His task was to oversee the club during an era in which it planned to recruit no players, let go of reasonably paid senior players, and encourage teenagers from their under-18 premiership teams to play senior football.
Robbins, who is now 34, came out of retirement early in his first season as coach in a successful attempt to lift the Eagles. But he’s remained on the sidelines this season as the Eagles have slipped to an uncustomary position towards the bottom of the ladder in the Casey-Cardinia division of the Mornington Peninsula Nepean league.
Although Beaconsfield admits that some club members have grumbled about Robbins’s coaching this season, it is believed that Robbins was not shown the door. He advised the club that he wouldn’t seek to renew his contract.
Captain Robbie Taylor, an assistant coach under Robbins this season, is expected to feature in considerations for a new coach. The Eagles, who are 10th on the 11-team ladder, today hosts Hampton Park (sixth).
The match of the day is Pakenham (second) versus Doveton (third). Top team Narre Warren, which is coached by former St Kilda defender Aussie Jones, has the bye.
The Warrnambool and District league finals start today with the qualifying final between Merrivale and South Rovers at the South Warrnambool ground, Friendly Societies Park. Kolora-Noorat and Allansford will play in the elimination final tomorrow.
In the final round last week, umpires called off the match between Nirranda and Old Collegians at 1.30pm, half an hour before the scheduled kick-off, because they deemed the Nirranda ground too wet.
Both teams were given two points for a draw, a decision that irked Nirranda players and officials because the bottom-placed club believed it could have enjoyed a rare win. Old Collegians finished the season ninth.
Article first appeared: The Age August 18 207
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