15yo son of ex-Blue stars on debut, former Crow bags 10, ex-Pie and Giant dons black and white stripes

Another week and another Victorian country club has begun the process of looking ahead to the 2025 season.

This week saw current Outer East FNL Premier Division club Narre Warren FNC declare they are looking to move into the Southern FNL for 2025.

A founding member of the now-defunct South West Gippsland FL, the club has also been part of the Mornington Peninsula Nepean FNL Casey-Cardinia Division as well as the short-lived South East FNL. After moving to the Outer East FNL in 2019, the Magpies have since won two premierships in 2019 and 2022.

Former Magpie and Giant Heath Shaw backed up from his appearance for Corowa Rutherglen FNC last week with a game for Wallan FNC in the Riddell and District FNC. Wearing his familiar black and white stripes, Shaw was named in the best as Wallan FNC secured a 50-point win over league newcomers Kyneton FNC, 13.16 94 to 6.10 46.

Former Demon and Bomber ruckman Mark Jamar made his third appearance for Simpson FNC in the Colac and District FNL. His best-on-field performance and goal unfortunately wasn’t enough to lift his Tigers to a win against Colac Imperials FNC, who ran out 21-point victors in the end.

Former Crow and Cat Josh Jenkins also produced a best-on-ground performance, snagging 10 goals for Sea Lake Nandaly FNC in their North Central FNC clash against Charlton FNC.

In the Central Highlands FNL the sounds of the Beaufort FNC club song rang out from the clubrooms for the time in 21 games, breaking a losing streak that runs back to Round 6, 2022. The Crows led from start to finish to run out 12-point victors over 12th-placed Ballan FNC, 11.9 75 to 9.9 63.

In the Ellinbank and District FNL, Catani FNC also had their first win for 2024, which in turn also broke a 12-game run without success, with a solid 50-point win over Nyora FNC, which leaves the Saints now as the only winless team in the Ellinbank and District competition.

On the other side of the ledger, five clubs suffered their first defeat of the 2024 season on the weekend. In the Goulburn Valley FNL, Echuca FNC, who had their own winning streak of 15 games broken earlier this season, ended top side Shepparton FNC’s nine-game streak with a commanding 70-point win. The match also saw the debut of 15-year-old Cody Walker, son of club coach and former Carlton star Andrew. Walker managed to kick 2 goals in his side's victory.

Another nine-game winning streak was broken in the neighbouring Picola and District FNL where Katamatite FNC piled on 5 goals to 1 in the last quarter to overcome Katandra FNC by 2 points at the final siren. In the South West District FNL league leaders Dartmoor FNC had their 7-game unbeaten streak ended by 5th-placed Coleraine FNC, 12.4 76 to 9.8 62.

It was another big weekend for the forwards in country footy where we had more big bags of goals kicked, with former Port Adelaide FC rookie listed player Tim Looby leading all comers with a haul of 15 for Strathmerton FNC in their big win against Tocumwal in the Picola and District FNL. In the Loddon Valley FNL, Lachlan Sharp, fresh off a bye last week and a previous bag of 20 goals, continued his good form recording 13 for Bridgewater FNC in their 100-point win over Calivil United FNC. Patrick Ireland from Buln Buln FNC in the Ellinbank and District FNL also ended up with 13 goals in helping his side to a 192-point win over Poowong FNC.

While these players made good inroads on the overall goal kicking leaderboard, they still sit behind the 87-goal tally of Josh Mellington from Bears Lagoon Serpentine FNC, who has had a 2-week layoff thanks to general league and club byes over the past two weekends. Sharp currently sits second on 74 and Looby’s bag of 15 has seen him rocket up to third with 72, now 2 goals ahead of Ireland who sits in fourth place on 70 goals for the season. Is this the weekend we get our first 100 goal kicker for the season? Given Mellington is averaging just under 11 goals a game, we could go close.

For all the latest in country footy, head to Country Footy Scores.