AMONG all the COVID-19 driven negatives there are a couple of real positives from the people plotting the paths for the remainder of the Goulburn Valley and Kyabram District football leagues’ seasons.
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Mark my words, the GVL board’s decision to revisit the past and play its grand final the day after the AFL season-decider will be a winner.
It always was a winner until 2015 when the board - for some reason I have never fathomed - decided to play its season-decider on the same weekend as the Kyabram District and Murray leagues.
That scenario virtually ruled out most players and fans who had participated in grand finals from the previous day from these leagues attending the GVL grand final.
And that has had a huge impact on GVL grand final attendances which have been well down since the date change.
Whether this season becomes a one-off is yet to be decided but my tip - and hope - is that it again becomes a permanent fixture and the last game of football played anywhere in Victoria for the season.
While the shift in dates for the GVL grand final is a real positive, the board’s decision to scrap rounds nine and 10 is a bit puzzling.
Admittedly COVID-19 changes can be made at an instance but there are two split rounds coming up in the GVL draw which could have catered for the two abandoned rounds.
I can understand most clubs not wanting to play while Melbourne COVID-19 restrictions are in place because their city-based players couldn’t play.
But hopefully by the time the split rounds come around we will be back to somewhere normal and wondering why the split rounds weren’t utilised.
The big losers out of the current situation will be those middle-of-the-ladder sides jostling to secure a finals berth.
Rochester is in this boat and its finals chances have been reduced considerably by two winnable games - against Mansfield and Benalla - now not being played.
The KDL’s decision to move its grand final to Friday, September 24 should also reap handsome dividends.
It’s the day of the AFL Friday public holiday leading into the AFL grand final on the Saturday and the GVL grand final on the Sunday - a winning trifecta if ever I’ve seen one.
Sinclair remembered for freakish talent
●WHEN you mention great sporting all-rounders, Wally Sinclair would have to be at the top of the list or near it in the Goulburn Valley region.
That’s the opinion of Tatura football identity Freddo McMahon O.A.M, a workmate and lifelong friend of Wally who died on May 31.
‘‘He could do anything, he was just a freak,’’ reflected Freddo on his mate - a plumber by trade - who came to Australia as a young boy after World War II in a failed scheme for Scottish war orphans at Dhurringile Boys Home.
Freddo said one of Wally’s best sporting achievements would have to be suffering just one loss in Tatura’s table tennis competition - that was over a period of 45 to 50 years.
‘‘The only person to ever beat him was Snowy Taylforth who he had coached,’’ Freddo recalled.
Wally had some great contests in table tennis with Kyabram star Len Stone and also playing tennis against Len’s brother, the late Bill Stone.
He once played table tennis against a touring Japanese contingent and won his games.
Freddo said Wally had won a Tatura Tennis Club Championship but it was cricket he devoted most of younger sporting days to.
‘‘He could bat, bowl both leg and off spin and wicketkeep too,’’ reminisced Freddo.
Then there was soccer and golf.
He was a natural at those too and represented the Goulburn Valley against the South Melbourne Hellas Soccer Club with distinction.
He was a low handicapper golfer and even squeezed in some Aussie Rules games with Tatura reserves.
After his more active sporting pursuits, Wally turned to lawn bowls where he again left an indelible mark.
He played with several GV bowls clubs - Tatura, Hill Top, Shepparton, Shepparton Golf - and established himself as one of the finest players the region ever had.
Literally dozens of personal accolades, a 12-time pennant premiership player and official legend status of the Goulburn Valley Bowls Division were on his resume.
And Wally’s talents were not just confined to sport, according to Freddo.
‘‘He could also play any musical instrument,” Freddo said.
“Really he was just a freak at anything.’’
Finals football and AFL links in Baker's ingredients
●THE death of Geoff Baker on May 27 has revived memories of a Kyabram premiership win, a top country coach and a star mature aged AFL recruit.
Geoff, who was 90, coached Nagambie in its second last appearance in a Goulburn Valley Football League grand final in 1958.
The Tony Bull-coached Bombers beat Nagambie 12.13 to 9.6 in that season-decider.
Nagambie made its last appearance in a GVL grand final in 1960 when runner-up to Lemnos (now Shepparton Swans) before switching to the Kyabram and District League in 1965 and winning a flag in its first year in its new league.
Geoff Baker is a legend of the Avenel Football Club.
He cut his teeth in the game in suburban Melbourne and won an under 18 best and fairest award for Cheltenham Football Club as a 13-year-old.
He was also a member Burnie Football Club’s flag winning side in Tasmania during a two-year stint in the Apple Isle in in 1949 and 1950 before returning to Victoria to be a member of Moorabbin’s premiership side in its first year in the Victorian Football Association in 1951.
Several VFL (now AFL) clubs were courting him but injuries forced him to contemplate a coaching career which led him to Avenel in 1955.
He took as coach of an Avenel side which at that stage one of the easy-beat sides in the former North East Football League.
Avenel hadn’t won a game for years but under Baker’s guidance won 13 successive games and made the finals.
Baker coached legendary Avenel player, the late Ian “Bluey’’ Shelton, who was centre half-back for his home club one year and in the same role the following year at Essendon.
Geoff is also the father of Leon Baker, one the best mature aged recruits to have played at AFL level.
Leon was 27 when Essendon recruited him from Perth club Swan Districts. He polled 13 votes in the Brownlow Medal in his first year with the Bombers in 1984 and the following year he was named in the All Australian side.
He went on to play 86 games with Essendon between 1984-88 and kicked 70 goals.
In an interview in 2015, Geoff Baker said the modern AFL game was very different to what he had experienced as a player and a coach and predicted soccer would eventually take over as the AFL was losing its connection with the people.
Winning streak trots on
●THE winning streak Kyabram trots trainers are experiencing at present extended to last week’s Shepparton meeting.
Trainer-driver Gary Payne produced El Boston, one of best backed winners at the meeting, for an all-the-way win.
A five-year-old gelding by Union Guy, El Boston firmed from 15/1 on fixed odds to a $4 chance and while his supporters may have been a bit lucky to collect they weren’t complaining.
There is little doubt the David Aiken-trained and driven favourite The Longest Day, which went down by the shortest possible margin, would have won the race if it wasn't for some rough racing during several periods of the race.
But winners are grinners and it was a good result for Payne who had produced the gelding for three top three finishes in seven previous runs since he took over his training.
El Boston has been consistent with only 28 race starts which have produced four wins, six seconds and four thirds.
In recent weeks other Kyabram trainers in Wes Shellie, Mick Blackmore and Paul Railton have also savoured wins.
United lands boom Sri Lankan recruit
●SHEPPARTON United Cricket Club has picked up a prize recruit.
All-rounder Mahesh Kodamullage, who played seven representative games for Sri Lanka, has found his way to the Goulburn Valley and Shepp United through a friendship with United player Chaminda Vidanapathirana from their days playing representative cricket in Sri Lanka.
He is a former Cricketer of the Year in the Melbourne Sub District competition and played in the Premier League with Greenvale.
Last season he made 459 runs at average of 27 and took 36 wickets in the Cricket Albury- Wodonga competition.
He is keen to work with not only the junior players at Shepparton United but all juniors in the area.
Club departs from City
●CITY of Echuca Bowls Club is no longer.
No, it hasn’t gone into recess but has had a name change.
Members voted overwhelming for the club to be now officially known as the Echuca Bowls Club.
Roo suspended - 11 years later
●IT TOOK 11 years but an incident in a Kyabram District League clash recently had a sequel at a tribunal hearing.
Girgarre’s Ben Gentle was booked for abusing an umpire in April of the 2010 season.
But he failed to front the tribunal until May 14 of this year when he decided to pull on the boots again.
He copped a two-week suspension with a further four matches suspended until the end of the 2022 season.
Kemp impresses on debut
●FORMER Echuca footballer Brodie Kemp didn’t disappoint when he made his long awaited debut with Carlton’s VFL side against Box Hill two weeks ago.
A first round draftee pick in 2019, Kemp has had an injury-interrupted two seasons as he tries to launch his AFL career.
But his first game in that bid was impressive, gathering 18 disposals and 10 marks.
Brodie is the son of former Kyabram schoolteacher and sportsman Grant Kemp.