Weekly Wrap | As we got our first taste of wintery weather this weekend, it was the ongoing story of clubs having challenges in terms of fielding sides that was the focus of conversations.
Last week Federal FNC, one of the oldest clubs in country Victoria, whilst having a full complement of netball sides, only had a week to decide if it could field a senior football side or risk going into recess for the 2022 Upper Murray FNL season. Not only did the club find enough players, they took this momentum into their home town clash with rival Corryong FNC and ran out 43 point winners.
Meanwhile in the Outer East FNL, Division 2, Broadford FNC and Yea FNC made the decision to combine together for the remainder of the season in order to be able to put 2 sides onto the park each week. The senior side will be called Broadford-Yea FNC while the reserves side will be referenced as Yea-Broadford. This decision means that rather than both clubs potentially forfeiting matches each week and potentially going into recess, they will have 60 players to choose from weekly. The new look club will have its first test next week when it takes on Warburton Millgrove FNC.
Rounding out the club based stories was the Friday announcement that QuambatookFNC in the Golden Rivers FNC has chosen to go into recess at the end of this season. In its official statement, the club says the decision has not been made lightly, but the challenge of not being able to consistently fill junior football and netball sides was at the heart of the decision. The club also preferred to go into recess rather than lose its identity by merging with another club. All that aside, they had their second win of the season with an 86 point win over Hay FNC, which currently sees them sitting third on the ladder.
Onto the onfield action this week, and it was celebrations all round in the Warrnambool & District FNL with Dennington FNC notching up their first win since 2019, when it defeated Timboon FNC by 72 points. It’s fair to say the club song was sung with gusto for the first time in over 1000 days.
This week saw the average winning margin in senior games across country Victoria at 63 points. The closest league for the week was the Loddon Valley FNL with an average winning margin of 18 points whereas the largest difference was in the Mininera and District FNL where the average winning margin was 138 points. Needless to say, that meant there were plenty of big wins, with none bigger than in the Kyabram and District FNL where Lancaster FNC kicked a whopping 46.28 304 to run out 302 point winners against Longwood FNC. This is currently the third highest score and winning margin so far to date in Victorian country footy for 2022.
Whilst there were the big wins , this week saw five matches decided by a solitary point, with the Riddell & District FNL having 2 games go right down the wire with Diggers Rest FNC just getting up over Romsey FNC and Woodend Hesket FNC doing the same by the barest of margins against Melton Centrals FNC.
As always, there were plenty of big bags kicked across the matches played over the weekend, with 7 players hauling in double digit bags of goals. This weeks list is headlined by Thomas Mullane-Grant kicking 12 in Bright FNC’s big win over Moyhu in the Ovens and King FNL, closely followed by Lismore Derrinallum FNC teammates Riley Browne and Micheal Lokyer both kicking 11 in their teams 255 point win over Moyston Willaura FNC in the Mininera & District FNL
