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VAFA ROUND 2.indd - Victorian Amateur Football Association

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EDITORIAL<br />

Michael Sholly<br />

FOOTY<br />

RETURNS<br />

Round 1 was all about the football. For the players,<br />

the nervous wait for selection and reward for<br />

the summer’s work. For the supporters and<br />

volunteers, it’s that old Saturday morning routine.<br />

Then come the games, then deciphering the<br />

results and finally the post-mortems.<br />

For those who haven’t caught live scores via<br />

Twitter, the SMS from Redtxt at 5.30 and vafa.com.<br />

au provide the next step. Then the Sunday papers,<br />

where the Saturday stories can be digested more<br />

fully. Sometimes it can take days to absorb the<br />

results, goalkickers and best players.<br />

level. Keeping the majority of the squad together,<br />

adding just a couple each year to add strength to<br />

the list can be a formula for success.<br />

In the past decade, this has been particularly<br />

evident with St Bede’s/Mentone Tigers (Premier<br />

C – A consecutive premiers), Rupertswood (Club<br />

XVIII to Premier C in six seasons).and perhaps<br />

now La Trobe, which is coming off two successive<br />

premierships in 2009 and 2010.<br />

Premier C flag winners Beaumaris began its<br />

season with a strong victory over Oakleigh. I am<br />

sure this match would have had a big build up as<br />

they are two of the stronger clubs in the southern<br />

region of the <strong>VAFA</strong>. Their three way mini battle<br />

with Hampton Rovers is sure to provide plenty of<br />

highlights through the year.<br />

The highlights from Opening Day were plenty<br />

– Werribee’s great start to Premier C, including a<br />

win in the Premier Thirds competition, Caulfield’s<br />

demolition of St Bernard’s out at the once feared<br />

Snake Pit, La Trobe’s continuing winning ways or<br />

the fighting come from behind win by Old Carey<br />

to notch a sensational two point victory in its first<br />

match in Premier. These were all sides who were<br />

promoted from the previous year.<br />

In fact all seven senior premiers began the season<br />

with a win, obviously all bar Old Xaverians coming<br />

from the section below.<br />

It’s good to see promoted clubs do well. Over the<br />

last few years we have seen many sides go through<br />

the sections by establishing a winning culture<br />

and building on that success. Watching finals<br />

through the grades, it is evident that sides when<br />

playing with confidence could slip comfortably<br />

into sections a couple above them. However the<br />

benefits of gradually building on a winning culture<br />

far outweighs remaining stationary in any one<br />

The other two premiers from last season, Monash<br />

Gryphons and Banyule both recorded victories.<br />

Monash Gryphons unfurled their flag and in true<br />

amateur tradition the cable broke and the first half<br />

played with the flag at half mast. Still, they held on<br />

for a comfortable win against Hawthorn. Banyule<br />

had little trouble defeating last year’s runners up<br />

Old Paradians and one gets the sense that the<br />

Bears winning momentum will continue.<br />

Similar to clubs, the umpires began the year with<br />

a new team and were eager for success. New<br />

head coach Tony Hales is joined by new goal and<br />

boundary umpire coaches, Harry Stamos and<br />

Robert Sebbens and they enjoyed a great start<br />

to the year. We fielded two umpires in all senior,<br />

U19, U18, Premier – C Reserves and Premier and<br />

Premier B Thirds, a magnificent achievement. We<br />

have injected 45 new boundary umpires and 14<br />

goal umpires whilst losing only 11 and 6. I am sure<br />

everyone will get behind these new umpires and<br />

welcome them all into the <strong>VAFA</strong>.<br />

The <strong>Amateur</strong> <strong>Football</strong>er<br />

THE JOURNAL OF THE VICTORIAN AMATEUR FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION<br />

April 16, 2011 Vol. 11 No. 2<br />

THE AMATEUR FOOTBALLER 2011 1

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