THE roller-coaster football ride that
is star forward Danny Casset’s career
took a severe downward turn at the start
of the final term in the clash between
BUNYIP and POOWONG on Saturday.
Casset landed awkwardly after flying for
a mark and suffered a triple fracture of
the wrist which will sideline the veteran
Bulldogs sharp-shooter for at least 10
weeks. A dejected Casset indicated it
may spell the end of his stellar 20-year
senior football career, which would be
an unfortunate way for that to happen.
ORDINARY effort from three
Casey Cardinia League clubs in rela
tion to the absence of club notes in
the Round 1 Footy Record last
week. TOORADIN, BERWICK and
2009 premiers PAKENHAM were
the culprits and there would appear
to be no excuse for the oversight.
Admittedly, sometimes during a
busy season the deadline for club
notes can be missed, but every club
had six months to submit their mus
ings for round one so, unless there
was a technical error at the printers,
it would appear to be just slackness.
All clubs in the other MPNFL com
petitions managed to make the
grade, and the failure by the Lions,
in particular, was noted by several
NARRE WARREN members looking
for a chink in the club’s armour on
Saturday. The Magpies found one or
two on the field too.
CRANBOURNE will no doubt be
looking for another goalkicker with
some experience for this weekend’s
clash against TOORADIN, but ex EIL
DON-THORNTON left-footer Brad
Coller will not be a candidate. Word from
Casey Fields suggests Coller will be out
of action for a significant portion of the
season after surgery to both ankles.
Apparently, Coller made the call after
playing in the Eagles practice matches
and realising that his ankles would not
stand up to an intense season of football.
WORD around the traps is that
the action on field in KEYSBOR
OUGH’S opening round victory over
DOVETON was more than matched
by the action at the club’s after
match function. However, according
to our spy, things will be handled
‘in-house’.
GARFIELD looks certain to improve
its forward line with the addition of Luke
Bee Hugo, a full-forward from Northern
Territory Football League powerhouse
the WARATAHS, who are coached by
gun CORA LYNN recruit and local star
Lincoln Withers. Rather than rush him
into the seniors, the Stars let Bee Hugo
settle in with a reserves game on Satur
day. He looked the goods and is expect
ed to go straight into the seniors for this
week’s clash against POOWONG.
SATURDAY’S gate for the clash
between GARFIELD and NAR NAR
GOON was close to $4000, the
biggest in many years, with last sea
son’s biggest home game return only
$2200. The Stars ground came up a
treat and, with its space, will surely
be looked at seriously as a finals
venue. The club produced a footy
record for all patrons but, on the
downside, the only hiccup involved
the youngsters who operated the
scoreboard who erred a number of
times during the afternoon. Unfortu
nately, that led to some score confu
sion which saw the Goon celebrate
what they thought was a last-kick
win on the final siren, only to have
the result reversed by goal umpires
minutes later. Looking ahead, the
Stars will host old rivals BUNYIP
mid-season and the club has organ
ised this as its supporters and past
player day in what should result in
another huge gate.
THERE were a couple of notable
absentees from the NARRE WARREN
line-up that downed PAKENHAM on
Saturday. Star defender Jarrod Ander
son and nuggety on-baller Chris Potalej
had their excuses – and both involved the
women in their lives. Anderson became
unavailable on Saturday morning after
his partner Bec gave birth to their first
child, Shae Amelia on Friday night. The
reason was accepted, but Ando still man
aged to get to the game. However,
young Potty’s decision to attend the
wedding of a family member of his girl
friend Kelly in Traralgon, rather than
play against the old enemy, was a talking
point in the Magpies’ rooms, particular
ly among the older blokes. “Whatever
happened to just rocking up to the recep
tion?” one asked.
NEXT Wednesday will see the
launch of phase 3 of the MPNFL
EastLink Road Safety Program
‘Don’t Drive Like a Demon’ to be
held at Casey Fields. The program is
supported by the MPNFL, Con
nectEast, RoadSafe, RACV, Victoria
Police, CFA, SES, local councils and
the MELBOURNE Football Club and
provides players from football and
netball clubs in the league with the
information and knowledge to make
good road safety decisions.
Melbourne players will be
announced as road safety ambassa
dors on the day and the league is
taking a strong and pro-active stance
on assisting its players, members
and clubs to become responsible in
all areas of road safety.
FROM the ‘Oops file’:
1. CASEY SCORPIONS social rooms
booking administration will have to
learn to communicate with their football
department after the upstairs Casey
Fields rooms were booked for a wedding
this Saturday, despite CRANBOURNE
hosting TOORADIN on the day. The
Eagles have been given use of the new
MELBOURNE social area but it is with
out bar facilities and there will need to
be some makeshift work done to reor
ganise the situation.
2. HAMPTON PARK and DEVON
MEADOWS under-18s had a good hit-
out in the opening term of their weekend
game after timekeepers allowed the first
term to run for 27 minutes rather than
the standard 20 minutes as stipulated by
the rules. Apparently, the teams and the
umpires were ready and started at 10.08
rather than wait until 10.15 and such was
just seen as a bit of extra time to play by
the officials, with the siren to end the
term sounding at exactly 10.35 as set
down in the handbook.
BULN BULN recruit Chris
Sharpe made his debut for the Lyre
birds on the weekend in a game he
will never forget. With the match
against KOOWEERUP up for grabs
midway through the last quarter, the
CORA LYNN recruit ran onto the
field outside the designated inter
change gate, which meant the player
he replaced, Lyrebird goalkicker
Brad Taylor, was not permitted to
return to the field for the rest of the
game. The Lyrebirds went on to lose
the match by 16 points. To add to
Sharpe’s woes, he was also reported
for abusive language but, on a posi
tive note, he did manage a goal.
GREAT to see the name Tyson Gold
sack in the best players for COLLING
WOOD reserves on the weekend. The
former PAKENHAM youngster has had
a start to the AFL year he would rather
forget after contracting viral meningitis
a fortnight before the start of the sea
son. The potentially dangerous virus
was diagnosed by the Magpies medicos
and the emerging defender was quickly
whisked to hospital where he spent five
days fighting the bug. That setback cost
Goldsack a place in the senior side after
an excellent pre-season, but he now
appears to be back on deck and will no
doubt push for a return to the big league
over the next few weeks.
BEACONSFIELD will hold a re-
enactment of the meeting which saw
the club formed exactly 120 years
ago at the Central Hotel (formerly
known as Gissing’s Gippsland
Hotel) at 7pm tonight. This is the
site and date when the club was
established and it will be followed by
a gathering of all current, former
and past committee members, life
members, sponsors and supporters
in an adjoining function room. It is
all part of the 120-year anniversary
celebrations, which will include a
‘Back to Beacy’ day on Sunday 20
June when the Eagles, wearing spe
cially produced heritage jumpers,
will play CRANBOURNE just as they
did in their first match 120 years
ago.
NEERIM NEERIM SOUTH have
renamed their ground the Bill Cumming
Memorial Oval in honour of the popular
club legend and stalwart, who lost his
life to a heart attack while performing
running duties for the Cats against
KOOWEERUP last season. Cumming
was involved with the club for over |
40 years, in all capacities except presi
dent, was an EDFL life member, a for
mer inter-league coach and mentor to
many.
FOR fans wanting their country
footy fix over the long weekend,
DEVON MEADOWS will host
DOVETON in the Casey Cardinia
League on Sunday and MORWELL
will play host to TRARALGON in the
Gippsland Football League on the
Monday public holiday.
MAFFRA supporters will now be
reminded of their historic 2009 grand
final victory over TRARALGON every
time they enter their social rooms. The
club has mounted the boot Nick Hors
ford wore to kick the winning goal after
the siren in a case behind the bar.
