HAS Girgarre’s Athol (Doc) McDonald discovered the Kangaroos’ only AFL/VFL footballer?
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The player was not directly recruited from Girgarre but it can claim him as he started his football career with the club.
Doc has been researching material for a book to be launched at the Girgarre Football Netball Club’s centenary celebrations in early August when he unearthed some interesting facts on a player called Len May.
He discovered Len arrived from Melbourne in 1919 to work on a Girgarre farm owned by his brother.
A talented young footballer, he lined up with Girgarre for its inaugural season in the Kyabram and District Football Association in 1920 and was a regular among its best players.
Standing 180cm (5ft 11in) and weighing 78kg (172 lbs), his feats with Girgarre caught the eye of Kyabram Football Club scouts. He was lured to play with Kyabram and was in the Tom Holmes’ captained premiership teams in the Goulburn Valley League in 1921 and 1922.
Len then transferred to Rushworth - a GVL rival of Kyabram in those days - for the 1923 season where he caught the eye of VFL club Fitzroy.
He played one game on a match permit with Fitzroy in 1924 and the following year was recruited by St Kilda where he played 20 games and kicked 10 goals over the 1925 and 1926 seasons.
Len was actually born in St Kilda in 1899.
He died in 1959 at the age of 60.
●NEWS that former Richmond champion Alex Rance will line-up for a game with Seymour this Saturday may not be good news for Mooroopna, the side the Lions are playing.
But it is good news for the GVL and the Seymour club as far as I’m concerned.
The GVL is at one of its lowest ebbs standard-wise in my time and needs all the publicity it can get at the moment.
Rance will ensure that happens this Saturday and it may lead to more appearances with the Lions this season, although this week's outing is being labelled a one-off performance at this stage.
Just who is going to get the job of minding the big, mobile and athletic Rance will no doubt give the Mooroopna’s brain trust a restless week.
●NAGAMBIE is another Kyabram District Football League club to add a high profile player to its ranks.
The Lakers have picked up former Shepparton Swans premiership player and Tatura coach Jamason Daniels.
Daniels made his debut against Lancaster on Saturday and was one of its best players in a beaten side.
Daniels’ appearance with the Lakers follows on from former Kyabram, Richmond and Greater Western Sydney star Brett Deledio committing to playing some games with Girgarre this season.
●KYABRAM Football Netball Club’s under 16 footballers have been badly inconvenienced by the draw.
When they take the field this Saturday against Shepparton United, it will be the Bombers’ first appearance since winning their first game in the new competition in round five on May 1.
The young Bombers were out of action in the next two rounds against Benalla and Mansfield because those two teams have no under 16 teams competing in the GVL competition.
Last Saturday was the GVL’s general bye which meant they missed out again.
So this Saturday will be their first appearance for a month.
There have been rumblings that the under 16 competition may be doomed but I don’t support that line of thinking at this stage, believing it should be given a chance.
But it has caused some confusion and problems with starting times for the other three competitions - under 18s, reserves and seniors - run on the same ground on the same day which needs some attention.
Some senior games this season haven’t finished til after 5pm and with winter upon us, I’m sure fans would appreciate an earlier finish in the senior games.
Particularly when there is a long road trip home.
●THOSE Girgarre Football Netball Club officials and supporters with a long memory will be saddened to hear of the death of Rhonda Scripps.
Rhonda was the wife of Col Scripps, a former ’Roos coach and multi-Shepparton premiership player under Tom Hafey in the 1960s.
After a long illness, Rhonda passed away last week in Adelaide where the family has lived for the past 20 years.
Col coached Girgarre for four seasons in the early 1970s and was a member of its premiership side under coach John Murphy, who replaced him as coach in 1976.
●KYABRAM trots trainers had a good weekend with Mick Blackmore landing a winner at the Kilmore meeting last Friday night and Rod Alley gearing up his first winner as a trainer at the big ‘Racing For Pink’ meeting at Shepparton on Sunday.
Blackmore scored with the star juvenile trotter Senitas Strength which ran her rivals ragged in a three-year-old trot.
The daughter of Muscle Mass was having her first start since finishing fifth in the NSW Oaks on May 1 and her class prevailed in a pillar-to-post performance.
It was her third career win from just the 13 starts and there have also been five minor placings, including an unlucky runner-up in the Group 1 Vicbred final for two-year-old trotters in late December.
Hobby trainer and Tongala schoolteacher Rod Alley produced four-year-old pacing mare Pippi for a dashing win at the Shepparton meeting.
Top reinsman Chris Alford was able to get Pippi from a second row into the one-one sit in the run and the chestnut daughter of Auckland Reactor spaced her rivals when she got into clear running in the home stretch.
Pippi was having only her sixth race start and clocked a creditable mile rate of 1.58.6 in her maiden win.
Alley, who is a member of a famous trotting family – his grandfather was the legendary trainer-driver the late Bert Alley - was naturally thrilled to secure his first win as a trainer.