Husband and wife team lead Lancaster to glory

Steve’s wife, and secretary of the club, Nicole Elliott was named the 2022 KDFNL Administrator of the Year — and she had no idea.

That’s saying something when it comes to Lancaster Football Netball Club as the secretary of the past five years has a finger in almost every pie — from the ordering of jumpers to the co-ordination of Thursday night dinners and to the long list of administrative duties associated with the role.

Nicole is the third Lancaster winner of the award in recent years, Sherry Atkins having won the award as a netball administrator and Simone Cerrone (mother of premiership player Zac) also a previous winner (as secretary of the club).

Nicole Elliott took over the role from Ross Meeking five years ago and husband Steve was president — on his own — for 2022, having spent the previous three years as joint president with Rod O’Neill.

“We’ve been involved at Lancaster for eight or nine years, but only half of that in executive roles,” Nicole said.

“It started through (son) Jack and (daughter) Cailtyn.

“They both played in winning 2015 grand finals (Jack with the Under-18 team and Caitlyn with the C-grade netball team).”

She said Steve was a bit apprehensive about taking on the two jobs at the start of their tenure, but they now pretty much lived and breathed Lancaster Football Netball Club.

Jack Elliott was a member of this year’s senior premiership team, having been captain of the Under-18 team in the 2015 premiership win.

Nicole works at St Augustine’s College, fittingly in administration, while Steve is a forklift technician with Toyota.

Nicole said the award was “a bit of a shock” and she definitely did not have anything prepared.

“When they interviewed me on the live stream I don’t know what I said,” she said.

“I do remember they asked me some doozy questions, even to the point as to what a day in the life of an administrator looked like.”

Lancaster 300-gamer Rikki Bush was also recognised during the event, while at Merrigum the club was named the Kyabram district league’s most disciplined club.

Wade Medal: Jarrad Mason (Stanhope)

When Jarrad Mason ran out for his 300th game with Stanhope in the opening round of the 2022 season he wasn’t expecting to be crowned the competition’s best reserve-grade player five months later.

In fact, he has rarely been able to train with the club this year — between work and family commitments.

It did not prevent the club from selecting the former Rushworth P-12 student, who grew up just a kilometre outside of Stanhope, for three senior games this season.

His win in the Wade Medal, for the best-and-fairest Kyabram district league player in the reserve-grade competition, came 24 years after he made his senior debut as a 15-year-old in 1998.

Mason’s amazing football story is littered with highlights, including a stint from 2005-2013 when he played in grand finals every year.

It included senior premierships with Stanhope in 2000, 2007 and 2008, along with two senior Picola league titles with Shepparton East.

He lost grand finals with Stanhope in 2005 and 2006, by one and two points respectively, to Tallygaroopna and Ardmona.

Then he played in back-to-back flags with the club in 2007-08 before starting a four-year stint with Shepparton East where he played in four successive grand finals (two winning ones) from 2009-12.

The last grand final in that run was the 2013 loss to Murchison-Toolamba, which won its first premiership in 31 years.

Mason grew up with three older brothers, two who played football, but never kicked on with the sport.

He now works at Valley Pack at Mooroopna, where he lives with wife Emily and two sons — nine-year-old Jordan and five-year-old Noah.

At Stanhope, Mason has played 220 senior games, 51 at underage level and 30 odd with the reserves.

He has regularly been called up for senior duty with Stanhope in recent seasons, but this season played 16 reserve-grade games and only the three at senior level.

This year was also the first year he had captained the reserves.

After sitting on the sidelines for most of the 2003 season through injury he played in a premiership with the Stanhope reserves, and another in 2018 — to continue the amazing story.

Before the vote count last week he was planning on retiring at the end of this year, but said he was not sure about what to do now.

“I thought I’d poll a few votes, but not win it,” he said.

Mason was runner-up in the 2001 McNamara Medal and in 2007 finished third.

He is a best-and-fairest winner at Shepparton East, where he played 75 games, kicked 63 goals and was a two-time premiership player in four dominant seasons in the Picola league.

His success has always been the envy of his wife, since the pair became an item in 2007.

“She was playing netball right through and could never reach the grand finals. It became a bit of a sore point,” he said.

Jordan is already showing the athletic qualities which made his father a great player at both clubs.

Senior netball coach of the year: Holly Nelson (Girgarre)

Girgarre netball coach Holly Nelson has not walked away from too many best-and-fairest counts empty handed. That trend continued last week at the Kyabram district league vote count.

The former league best and fairest would have no doubt preferred to be involved in the A-grade finals series rather than any individual success, but her recognition as the senior coach of the year was reflective of her team-first approach.

Nelson’s team won six games and missed the finals only by percentage. There is, however, positive signs with the clubs’ Under-15 and Under-13 teams both involved in this year’s finals series.

McCormack Medal: Kara Canny (Stanhope)

Kara Canny’s heart-wrenching end to the 2022 Kyabram district league’s C-grade netball season was softened with a shock win at the vote count last week.

She polled in an amazing 13 games, in her seventh season at Stanhope, to win the McCormack Medal by five votes.

She captained the Stanhope C-grade team to an extra-time one-goal grand final loss, having to spend part of the preliminary final and the water-logged grand final thriller as goal shooter.

She had earned seven best-on court awards during the year playing at wing attack, but injury forced her into goals.

A property manager at Hinchcliff and Greed Real Estate, Canny said she was closer to 40 than she was 30 and apart from a Girgarre C-grade premiership almost 20 years ago had not tasted grand final day glory.

“It was a disappointing finish. It is hard to get to a grand finals and even harder to win one,” she said.

In her acceptance speech Canny described herself as “like a fine wine, getting better with age” and thanked her brothers, Matt and Josh, for getting her to the club.

The past few seasons she has been runner-up in the club best and fairest, but also went one better in that award this year.

As for the league award, she explained she had been in the top 10 a couple of times, but never looked liked winning the award.

“It was a shock, there are so many good players. C-grade is where a lot of people park their kids in their first year out of juniors,” she said.

Canny was one of three Stanhope C-grade players to finish in the top 10, with Hayley Trevena and Bianca Atley also polling strongly.

Netball Rising Star: Millie Hill (Lancaster)

Millie Hill is the ultimate all rounder, so it should probably be no surprise she was the Kyabram district league’s rising star for the 2022 netball season.

This is just the 18-year-old’s third season of netball, having concentrated mostly on football and cricket.

At one point she was playing netball on Saturday and football with Mooroopna on Sunday.

She missed the last month of this season with a knee injury, but was still selected as the top first-year player through her work with Lancaster’s A-grade team — mostly in defence.

Her mother Michelle coached the A-grade team, where the former Under-12 St Augustine’s footballer flourished in the sport.

The win comes after she not only captained the first female cricket side with Fire Brigade, but also earned representative honours with Northern Rivers and was a member of the Murray Bushrangers’ Under-15 V/Line Cup team three years ago.

Football Rising Star: Brady Wileman (Stanhope)

Brady Wileman played 31 games of football this season with Stanhope, six of those in the senior outfit where he had an immediate impact on those around him.

He debuted with the club at senior level as a 16-year-old, last season, then made intermittent appearances throughout the 2022 season and kicked two goals in the top flight.

Those half dozen games were enough for him to earn the league’s rising star title.

When the club had a bye he even turned out with Rochester’s Under-18 team on two occasions.

His 14 games with the Stanhope Under-18 team — where he was the best and fairest — included 22 goals and he kicked five goals in nine games with the reserve-grade team.

Junior netball coach of the year: Shona Fullford (Lancaster)

Shona Fullford has watched from the sidelines as her partner Brad Tinning has coached Lancaster teams to Under-18 and, only a couple of weeks ago, reserve-grade premierships.

This year she threw her hat in the ring to have a go at coaching at junior netball level.

The dramatic improvement of the team meant that she was honoured by the league with the junior netball coach of the year award.

At the start of the season the club had difficulty fielding an Under-13 side, but through the work of Fullford they ended up with 11 in the Under-13 team.