Another Kyabram footballer has reached a notable games milestone with the club.
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In last Saturday’s clash against Mansfield one of the many home-grown players in the Kyabram side, Aaron Hayes, chalked up his 100th senior game for the club.
Hayes joins a growing list of Kyabram players who this season have celebrated playing 100 senior games with the club.
Axel Child, Luke Morris, Sam Sheldon, Jordan Williams have all achieved the 100-game milestone this season.
Sitting on 94 games, veteran Kayne Pettifer will add his name to the list later this season if he keeps injury-free.
Jake Reeves is also century bound, with 80 games.
The current senior team now has eight players who have given 100 senior games service to the club.
Three of these players — co-captains Brad Edwards and Jason Morgan and former skipper Josh Vick — have played over 200 games.
Patrick Wearden (48 games) and Zac Norris (47) are on the verge of playing 50 games.
This stability and devotion to the club is reflected in Kyabram’s recent almost perfect record of 68 wins from its past 69 games.
Hayes is one player who took the transition from under-age football to senior football in his stride.
Like most of the players in this talented Kyabram side the strongly built, robust utility can readily adapt to a variety of positons and roles.
I remember his father, Col, telling me when Aaron was playing in Western Australia that his heart was really still back at the Kyabram Football Club and it wasn’t long before he returned to play with the Bombers.
When he kicked a goal in last Saturday’s clash he was given the Tony Lockett treatment by his teammates in their show of appreciation of a popular teammate who loves representing his home town and plays his heart out for it.
Reid all about it
HE COULD well be another Kyabram Football Club recruit to Crowe about.
Reid Crowe, who played his second game for the club in the reserves on Saturday, really caught the eye with a busy game.
His debut the previous week was inconspicuous, which was understandable as he was adjusting to new teammates. But on Saturday he was really up and about and eager to make a statement.
Not big but clever he has pace and displayed fine skills and evasive powers in an impressive display.
Originally from Finley he was a best and fairest winner at senior level with fellow GVL club Shepparton United in 2017. His debut with Kyabram was delayed by a foot injury.
And from what he did on Saturday he has given the senior selectors another pleasant headache in trying to come up with Kyabram’s best side.
Mick fills midfield void
When Kyabram Football Club lost its best small man of recent times, Liam Ogden, at the end of last season it was agreed he would be hard to replace.
Some even suggested he couldn’t be replaced.
Well, there has been a replacement and he’s making a decent fist of it.
Selectors this season have asked last year’s star recruit Mick Mattingly to fill the boots left by Ogden. No-one has been disappointed.
Mattingly was used as a flanker and outside player last season but has accepted his promotion to the coalface in onball and midfield brigade roles this season to replace Ogden with stunning results.
He has been best or in Kyabram’s best in every game he has played this season and his ability to free the ball from the stoppages with his skill and pace has been exemplary, as he again demonstrated against Mansfield last Saturday.
For love not money
In these days of often ridiculous player payments in country football it was refreshing to see Echuca United Football Club’s latest star recruit’s slant on things.
Andrew Welsh, a 162-game veteran with Essendon Football Club, is a prized signing by the Murray League side.
And, wait for it — he’s playing for nothing.
Welsh runs a highly successful property developing business — Welsh Group — and wants to put as much as he can back into the Echuca-Moama community in his time in the area.
He is expected to play at least six games and finals with Echuca United.
Shepp Golf bowls ’em over
Shepparton Golf Bowls Club has not only proved it was the best pennant team in the Goulburn Valley Bowls Association in the 2018-19 season but the best in the state.
Brad Orr and his Shepparton Golf teammates swept all before them in the State Pennant Championship, recently claiming the crown at Moama with a win over Bendigo East in the final.
On the way to the final, Shepp Golf accounted for Frankston, Kerang, Wodonga and Traralgon.
‘Trout’ was a star
ROCHESTER Football Club lost a member of its all-conquering teams from its days in the Bendigo League with the passing of Trevor (Trout) English on April 21 at the age of 81.
He was a member of Rochester’s Con O’Toole-coached undefeated premiership side of 1962 and also its flag-winning team of 1963 when he was adjudged best on ground.
In those days, Trout and teammates such as Ingram, Broom, Randall, Jones, Fry, Shinners and Willett were revered football names in Rochester and northern and central Victoria.
Trout took up golf in the early 1980s when the club moved home and was a tireless worker. He was also known and respected in Rochester in his profession as a builder, leaving legacies with some of the homes he built surviving the record Rochester floods of 2011.