FOOTBALL and netball grand-final day. It doesn’t matter whether you are in the big smoke or the bush, it’s such a special occasion.
The Sunraysia Football and Netball League’s showpiece event today is more than just about sport.
It’s a community celebration and a coming together of families and friends.
It’s also going to be a big test event for the new $45 million Mildura Sporting Precinct (MSP).
There’s been a spanner in the works with the rain in the past few days, but hopefully it won’t put a great dampener on the day.
There’ll no doubt be teething problems in the course of the day.
The queues at the bar and toilets in the lead-up to the senior grand final’s first bounce will probably be frustratingly long.
But I implore everyone to have as much patience as possible given this is a big-time debut for the facility, its staff and contractors.
What I do know, though, is that it’ll be lengths-of-Flemington-straight better than what would have held at the dilapidated City Oval.
Sunraysia Daily has helped right a wrong in the league’s initial decision to play the grand finals at Mildura Recreation Reserve.
The footy juniors will take centre stage on MSP’s AFL-standard premier oval in the morning. This will be a memorable occasion for the youngsters and their families, as it will be for the netball juniors and their mums and dads.
The two biggest games of the day will be the A-grade netball and senior footy grannies from noon and 2.30pm, respectively.
Unbeaten Wentworth will start as unbackable favourites to win the netball decider.
I expect the 2019 defending premiers Ouyen United to put up a bold fight. However, the machine-like Roos should have too many guns.
In the senior footy big dance, my heart says Wentworth but my head says Irymple.
I still have ringing in my ears what McLeod Medallist Kaine Stevens told me last week about the Swallows.
“In my eyes, they are the best structured team in the comp by a fair bit,” the Kangas midfield gun said.
“Wentworth are very good and have been the best team all year, but Irymple have a good game plan and structure.”
I’m tipping the Swallows for this reason.
They also know how to win in September. Several of their current players were in the 2017 and 2019 premiership-winning teams.Edwards unlucky
Congratulations to the winners of the McLeod and Horkings medals this week.
Kaine Stevens was a runaway winner of Sunraysia football’s highest individual honour.
Coming across from SANFL club West Adelaide this year, he was supreme for Ouyen United in their run to the preliminary final.
Jess McNamara was named A-grade netball’s best-and-fairest player for 2022, pipping Amanda Edwards (Wentworth) and Catherine Brown (Ouyen United) by two votes.
McNamara is a top-shelf player and, along with Sharon Watson, led her team to the preliminary final before getting knocked out by the Kangas.
A powerhouse start to the season set up her medal win.
By the numbers, though, I thought Edwards was a bit stiff missing out on the top gong.
Edwards drained a whopping 667 goals this home-and-away season at an average of 42 goals a game.
The Roos conceded an average of 32 goals a game during the regular season, meaning Edwards alone had the other teams covered.
The next-best shooter was Merbein’s Rebecca Harvey with 420 goals at an average of 23 goals each outing.
Edwards’ team is also unbeaten after 19 games en route to the grand final.
I watched several of the Roos’ games this season where playing coach Edwards was the difference between her team winning by 30 goals or a much narrower margin.
I just wonder if she was a victim of her team’s success, where other stars like Natalie Vercher took votes off her because they also had a number of blinders during the season.
Consolation prizes
Having ridden the magical, but ultimately crushing end to the Mildura Heat women’s team season pretty hard, I was delighted that they stole the Big V Division 1 awards show this week.
Regular Serve readers will know I think that coach James Madigan is the best thing since sliced bread.
His peers saw fit to honour him with the coach-of-the-year award this week. Bravo!
Alannah Morello, at just 17, stood tall against bigger-bodied women all season and also showed blistering speed in transition.
She’s so fast that she could turn the light out and be in bed before the room went dark.
She was duly rewarded with the youth player-of-the-year honour.
Big guns Vanessa Power and import Fanni Szabo were named in the All Star Five. And deservedly so given the great numbers they put up at the offensive end.
This kind of recognition is generally afforded to a championship-winning team, not one that was bundled out in week one of finals.
There is no doubt in my mind that this team fell short of where they should have finished the season.
They were cutting the top teams to shreds in the lead-up to finals, but inexplicably fell apart in the elimination final.
The question now is whether they’ll get the band back for next season to prove they are in fact the supreme team in the league?
