Weekly Wrap | If you thought last week was a taste of winter, then this weekend was a real blast of proper footy conditions, with beanies, scarves, jackets and blankets across the knees being the staples for spectators across the weekend.
A positive of this was the overall winning margin of games across the state was down from last week, with the average margin being 55 points instead of 63 last weekend.. This weekend we saw another club break a long standing losing streak, with North Albury FNC in the Ovens and Murray FNL beating the Wodonga Raiders FNC by 23 points to register their first win since the 29th of June 2019. There was also plenty of excitement and anticipation as the newly merged Broadford-Yea FNC had their first match in Division 2 of the Outer East FNL against Warburton Millgrove FNC, but there was to be no fairy tale finish to the inaugural match as they went down by 61 points.
Previous weekends have seen games called off due to clubs having to forfeit reserve grade matches, however this weekend saw two senior games called off due to serious injuries sustained by players. In the Ovens and King FNL, the game between Goorambat FNC and Tarrawingee FNC was abandoned due to an injury to a Goorambat player. As the game was called off before half time, the match resulted in a draw with both clubs sharing the points. In the Murray FNL, a close game between Echuca United FNC and Barooga FNC was called off halfway through the last quarter after a leg injury to a Barooga player. With Barooga leading 15.8 (98) to 12.9 (81) at the time and the game stopped for over half an hour, Barooga were awarded the victory which was their first for the season.
The wintery conditions did create some close games with 3 games this weekend decided by a solitary point. 1 point winners where Lindenow FNC over Omeo-Benambra FNC in the Omeo and District FNL and Glengarry FNC over Sale City FNC in the North Gippsland FNL. Inaccurate kicking in the Mid Gippsland FNL by Yinnar FNC, with 7.13 55, cost them victory against a more accurate Stony Creek FNC who managed 8.8 56.
While there were the close games, there were still the big wins with this week producing the largest score and winning margin for the 2022 season. Unfortunately it was Wahgunyah FNC in the Tallangatta & District FNL again on the end of another thumping defeat for this season when Beechworth FNC kicked a massive 66.36 432 to run out 431 point winners. Also for the second week in a row, Lismore Derrinallum FNC in the Mininera and District FNL kicked over 270 points, as this week they managed 42.25 277 in their match against Caramut FNC to be 263 point victors.
The forwards across the state again had another big weekend with 11 reaching double figure hauls from the games they played. There were no bigger bag of goals than in the Maryborough Castlemaine District FNL where Danny Brewster from Natte Bealiba FNC, in the match against Campbells Creek FNC kicked 16 goals as they ran out 251 point winners. There were also two bags of 13, one by Dane Carey from Beechworth FNC and another by Ashely Saunders from Tungamah FNC in the Picola and District FNL. The clubhouse leader in terms of total goals kicked across the state after the weekend is Lachlan Thompson from the Benalla All Blacks FNC in the Ovens & King FNL with 40 goals, closely followed by Thomas Mullane-Grant from Bright FNC with 37 and Joshua Mellington from Violet Town FNC in the Kyabram & District FNL who has 36.
