Weekly Wrap | The off field news this week was highlighted by some long awaited news regarding the Broadford FNC.
The club which has been in recess since the end of the 2023 and has recently been accepted into the Bendigo FNL for the 2026 season, has been relatively quiet up until now. Friday saw them announce former Hawthorn and North Melbourne big man Nathan Thompson as the new club coach who has the big job ahead of him in leading the club back from an onfield perspective.
The wet and windy weather over the weekend seemed to be a bit of an enigma, as across the state we had a wide variety of results . These varied from a match being abandoned in the Kyabram and DIstrict FNL due to serious injury to a player that occurred in the first quarter, 6 one point thrillers and a draw, scoreless teams as well as the 5th highest score of the season.
This high score went to the Nirranda FNC who piled on 43.14 272 in their Warrnambool & District FNL clash against South Rovers FNC. As well as this big score there were two clubs who failed to register even a single behind in their matches, while in the North Central FNL, North Gippsland FNL and Upper Murray FNL, all had average winning margins of over 100 points for their weekend round of matches, despite the conditions.
Circling back to the one point matches and two of these were surrounded in end of match controversies.
In the Mornington Peninsula FNL match between Frankston YCW and Sorrento FNC there was considerable confusion after the final siren sounded. Initially the scores showed the two teams tied together and the match a draw. However after consultation this result was changed to show that Frankston YCW FNC were 1 point victors, 10.10 70 to 10.9 69.
Across town in the Geelong and District FNL it was a high scoring shoot out between the Belmont Lions FNC and Bell Post Hill FNC with the score showing a 19.7 121 to 18.12 120 win to the Belmont Lions when the final siren sounded. However, Bell Post Hill FNC immediately queried the result and it has since been identified through the coding of the game by Premier Data, that the score should read as a four point win to Bell Post Hill FNC 18.11 119 to 18.7 115. The original result stands for the moment while it is currently being investigated by the Geelong and District FNL.
Another week saw more undefeated and winless streaks come to an end. In the Golden Rivers FNL Macorna FNC broke a 17 game losing streak that stretched back to July last year, when they were 2 point winners over the third placed Murrabit FNC in a dour low scoring affair, 4.4 28 to 3.8 26. In the East Gippsland FNL, Lucknow FNC tasted defeat for the first time in 2025 when they went down by 10 points to the fifth placed Omeo Benmabra FNC 9.10 64 to 7.12 54.
Despite the wet, wild, wintery weather it didn’t deter the forwards who were on fire this weekend when it came to bags of goals. We had a dozen players kicking individual tallies of 10 or more, headlined by bags of 14 by Dimboola FNC’s Jackson Calder and John Spencer from Cudgewa FNC . The list also has a heavy ex AFL feel to it with former Demon Michael Newton from Whorouly FNC kicking 12 alongside bags of 10 by former Docker Josh Mellington for Bears Lagoon Serpentine FNC and former Crow and Pie Ben Crocker who slotted his 10 for Moe FNC.
Newton’s haul of 12 left him agonisingly short of hitting the 100 goal mark, leaving him on 99 for the season and in third place overall, 1 ahead of Bridgewater FNC’s Lachie Sharp who also kicked a dozen this weekend, which left him on 98 at the end of this round. Both sit behind our overall leader Jason Wells from the Longwarry FNC who leads with 116 and second placed Aaron Mullett who has 105. Alongside Newton and Sharp, next week could see as many as 6 players realistically hit the 100 goal milestone for the season.
