I hope not.
Lachie Smith was cleared by the Bombers late last week to North Heidelberg in the Northern District Football League in northern Melbourne.
He made an instant impression at his new club being named second-best player in his team’s 10-point win over McLeod.
Recruited from Benalla in season 2016 after Benalla had beaten Kyabram for the 2015 flag, Smith has been one of the best key defenders in the Goulburn Valley League in his time with the Bombers.
He is a club best and fairest winner, has played 124 games through the club’s recent golden era which netted three flags in four seasons and a Victorian record winning streak of 52 games under coach Paul Newman.
Newman said Smith had been a great player and person in his time with the club and will leave a big hole.
Bombers secretary Paul Shortis also praised Smith for his loyalty to the club over nearly a decade and said the club wished him well for the future.
Often switched to anttack to provide a aerial target and some goal scoring power, Smith also booted 72 goals and was named in the cub’s Kyabram’s six best players in 64 of his 124 games.
Famous for his intercept fingertip marking, he also represented the GVL in four interleague games.
Could the Bombers ask Smith to play one last farewell home game in front of admiring Kyabram fans, many of whom have him right at the top of their list of favourite and best Kyabram players of the past decade?
It would be a pity to think Smith, who has given Kyabram fans so much joy in his time at the club, has bowed out without the fanfare and farewell he has deserved in his time with the Bombers.
Mundy back at the Lions
Seymour Football Club produced its most famous product in Saturday’s GVL clash against Kyabram.
True to his word, David Mundy, 38, fronted for his first game for the Lions since retiring from Fremantle at the end of the 2022 season
The robust on baller was certainly a drawcard for Saturday’s game with a good-sized but not huge crowd on hand to see him play his first game with the club for 19 years.
Mundy started with the Dockers in 2004 and played to the end of the 2022 season after being recruited from the Murray Bushrangers in 2003.
He played 376 games with the Dockers and sits 11th on the list of the most games played by an VFL/AFL player.
He also captained the Dockers in 2016.
In Saturday’s clash, he was credited with 19 disposals, 5 kicks and 14 handballs and two goals.
Saracino on the move
Cricket Shepparton legend Gino Saracino is on the move, announcing he has accepted the coaching job with the Numurkah Cricket Club for the 2024-25 season.
The 47-year-old has got the best wishes from the fellow Cricket Shepparton club he has served so long and well, Old Students, in making the move.
But he is keeping his cards close to his chest at this stage on whether he’ll don the whites or not, looking more at this stage towards the challenge of avoiding the heartbreak Numurkah suffered this year when squeezed out of top the top six — and finals — in the final home-and-away round.
The heartbreak was caused as the result of eventual premier Kyabram winning its last round game outright and snatching a place in the finals after losing four of first five games.
League in disarray
The once mighty Bendigo Football League, Victoria’s strongest country league 60 years ago, is in a disarray at the moment.
One-sided clashes, no general manager and no support for a possible new club are just some of the issues the league is grappling with at present.
Two weeks ago, one of its clubs, Sandhurst, kicked a league record score of 54.23 to Maryborough’s 2.2.
Futures of Maryborough and Gisborne in the league are reported to be in doubt and Kyneton has already switched to the Riddell District League, a move its president has claimed has saved his club.
The Bendigo-based Loddon Valley League side Maiden Gully-YCW made an attempt to get an Under-18 side into the league with the intention of an eventual move with senior teams has also proved futile.
Former league president Jack Clark has described what is happening in the league at present as ‘‘tragic’’ and a restructure was urgently needed.
He has even suggested making overtures to Rochester, a powerhouse in the league in the late 1950s and early 1960s, making eight consecutive grand finals and winning four premierships, to rejoin the league.
A pooling gates system in the Bendigo League at the time was a trigger for the Tigers to look elsewhere to play as it was the best supported club in the league and drew big attendances.
The best fit for a shift was the GVL and it made the switch in 1973 after sitting out the 1972 season after failing to get a clearance from the Bendigo League.
This year, the Tigers are celebrating their 150th year.
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