They say a week is a long time in football and this week proves to be no exception.
Just days after guiding North Albury FNC to their first win in over 1000 days, it was bittersweet for coach Luke Norman who chose to step down from the role, unable to continue to juggle the time required to coach as well as keep up with the work demands in his expanding business. New coaches Corey Lambert and Clint Gilson were unable to keep the winning momentum going this weekend in their clash with Lavington FNC, who ended up 15-point winners, despite six goals from former Collingwood player Tim Broomhead.
Friday saw the long awaited decision into the appeal by Echuca FNC in the Goulburn Valley FNL who were stripped of their senior and reserve wins in their season opener against Rochester FNC for playing ineligible players. Despite self-reporting the issue which was deemed to be due to the new PlayHQ online system, the Goulburn Murray Commission dismissed the club's appeal, stating the fault was not at all PlayHQ related. The original penalties remain, including fines for the club for playing the players deemed ineligible.
Saturday saw former Richmond star Alex Rance grace the field for Campbells Creek FNC in the Maryborough Castlemaine District FNL. Whilst the club has certainly needed some star power to bolster its defence in the past few weeks after some large losses, Rance headed to the other end of the ground finishing the day with three goals. However, the effort wasn’t enough as Maldon FNC ran out 92-point winners.
Big wins were back on the agenda again this week, with an average winning margin of 63 points across all senior games of footy, up on last weeks overall margins. Wahgunyah FNC in the Tallangatta & District FNL were again on the end of this week's biggest margin when Tallangatta FNC kicked 51.27 333, while Wahgunyah unfortunately remained scoreless for the first time this season. At the other end of the scale, nothing could split South Colac FNC and Irrewarra Beeac FNC in the Colac and District FNL who were locked together at 9.10 64 a piece at the final siren.
Not for the first time this year we’ve stated that poor kicking is costly and that was exactly the issue for Hill End FNC in the Mid Gippsland FNL who kicked 5.12 42 to lose by a solitary point against MDU who managed 6.7 43 to run out 1-point winners. However, there was one anomaly to this statement where Torquay FNC in the Bellarine FNL kicked an incredibly wayward 14.30.114. The inaccuracy mattered little as they ran out 71-point winners in their match against Newcomb FNC.
The forwards across the state had another day out with 11 of them kicking hauls of 10 or more goals. There were none bigger than the 20 goals kicked by Matthew Butler from Edenhope Apsley FNC in their Horsham and District FNL match against Natimuk United FNC. This was closely followed by a bag of 18 goals by Bambill FNC’s Bradley Congress in their big win over Meringur FNC in the Millewa FNL. A 14-goal tally from Marong FNC’s Brandyn Grenfell in the Loddon Valley FNL was enough to take him to the top of the statewide goal kickers list with a total of 44 for the season. Three players sit hot on his heels with Danney Brewster from Natte Bealiba FNC, Violet Town FNC’s Joshua Mellington and Lachlan Thompson from the Benalla All Blacks FNC who have all posted 42 goals at this point of the 2022 season.
Keep up to date each week with all scores, ladders, stats and more at countryfootyscores.com.
Image credit: Michael Thompson
