MARCUS: Alright gentlemen, I don’t know about you but I was pretty excited to get out to the footy this weekend. Round one kicked off and that’s what we’re all here for; watching the action and seeing it all unfold. And I want to start today’s episode with something that I want to become a running segment. Jonty, you can kick us off, mate. What was the best bit of action that you saw this weekend in sport?
JONTY: The best piece of action I saw this weekend was watching key forward Sam Muirhead’s cleanliness and impact in soggy conditions. I thought his ability to do that, given his size and the type of player he is, was really important for Doveton. They got off to a slow start and he really got them back into it, he was a key part of their victory.
DAVE: Well if you needed reminding of how good Tooradin is, there was passage of play in the first quarter. The game was meandering along and then Adam Oxley scoops-up the ball at halfback, and they transitioned the ball through four sets of hands and they hit a target lace-out in front of goal. I thought, ‘nah that doesn’t happen very often at local footy.’ Just that transition and how well they moved the ball with little inside 45 kicks, changing the angles every time.
MARCUS: My shout-out goes to Mitch Tonna from Narre Warren. It was another excellent game from the Outer East defending premiers against Pakenham down at Toomuc, and he took an absolute screamer at half back. He intercepted the kick-in and sat on his opponent’s shoulders, which got the crowd up-and-about on a pretty dismal day for Pakenham, but exciting for Narre to take the field.
ROUND ONE SIGHTS
MARCUS: Like I said it was great to be back, and one thing I think is pretty synonymous with round one is, there was a lot of cramping going on earlier than you would usually see in a game. I think we can expect it early in the fourth when you’re absolutely knackered but early in the third, I think that’s something you do see quite a bit in round one. Dave, I’ll throw to you first. What are some other signs that are pretty synonymous with the opening week of the season?
DAVE: Well it was funny because I was out at quarter time at my game on the weekend and the Kilcunda-Bass coach said “Boys, it’s what we’ve been working on over preseason, it’s not going to happen overnight,” and I thought, ‘perfect, that’s a round one classic.’ The other thing was, I had to pay to get in to the footy on Saturday because I didn’t have my season pass down at Tooradin, which is fair enough, that’s normally the thing for round one. And when I got to Pakenham early in the morning the gate attendant had no idea who I was, and tried to get me to pay to get in. so the gate attendants being new to the job and not knowing the locals, that’s a common theme in round one.
JONTY: So were you were offended that you couldn’t use your celebrity status as a journalist?
MARCUS: This is a massive revelation.
DAVE (Laughing and playing defence): I’ll let you both talk shit and then I’ll explain why. I’m an assistant-coach of the Pakenham women’s team, and all coaches of the club get in for nothing, I just haven’t bought a membership yet, but will. So that’s why, not because of the Pakenham Gazette title, you flogs!
MARCUS: So, if we were to ask the gate attendant, ‘’Did you see Dave Nagel on Saturday?’’, would he say ‘‘Who?’’
DAVE: She would. (Laughs)
MARCUS: Were you close to dropping a “do you not know who I am?”
DAVE: No I wasn’t. We don’t have any celebrity status as journalists; and if so I wouldn’t use it for that reason, maybe a drink-card at a pub might be different if that was available. But the new lady on the gate had no idea and that’s fair enough.
JONTY: There’s always big crowds in round one with all the excitement.
DAVE: What about wrong numbers in the footy record? That always happens in round one.
JONTY: That PAINS me!
RECRUIT WATCH
MARCUS: One of the highlights of round one is seeing the new recruits in the new colours and jumpers. Jonty, which recruits are you going to be paying close attention to start the season? It sounds like you had a close look at James Pattinson on the weekend.
JONTY: I did have a look at James Pattinson on the weekend. It is going to take him a bit of time to get to his best. The recruit for Doveton that I’m really looking forward to watching is Aaron Walton. We talked about the Doveton ruck stocks last week and now Dyl Chapman’s done a minor hamstring. He will be back next week but whether he’s back at full strength or not that’s another thing. I think Walton will have to step-up again. He did it on the weekend. And their other young ruck is also injured. So their rucks that I was excited about are both under an injury cloud of differing lengths, so that put some pressure on Walton. So I’m watching him. And Tanner Stanton at Hampton Park had a really strong first up performance under his dad, Hayden, so hopefully he can tear it up on the wing.
DAVE: Marcus, my recruit to watch this year is a name that you’ll be familiar with, in Will Hams, who played about a dozen games for Essendon. He’s played one game so far for Inverloch-Kongwak. And there’s two blokes who have gone right under the radar in preseason discussions: Tate Short and Nick Baltas, who have come from Caulfield Grammarians in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) Premier Division. That’s a really good standard of footy, particularly in Premier Division where you get a few ex-AFL players. Those two are both very clever midfield-forwards who are going to kick a lot of goals and bring a lot of class to the Inverloch midfield. Mitch Hallahan too, the former Gold Coast and Hawthorn player, has gone to Dalyston. He’s been in a really strong team down at Sorrento for a lot of years and it’s going to be interesting to see if he can bring a team that won two games last year up to being competitive, or whether he needs a good crop around him.
MARCUS: I’m very proud that you’ve slipped a couple of Caulfield Grammarians in, as one myself. I actually played under nine’s footy with Nick Baltas at Murrumbeena, and he was sensational back then, and clearly still is now. One of those super classy half-forward midfielders who makes things happen with the ball in his hands. Tate Short played for Footscray’s VFL side in 2021, and he’s a gun as well. I’m looking at Rowville, because Ben Wise is very excited about a couple of players he’s got from Eastern Rangers this year, in ruck, Clay Tucker and half-back, Callum Verrell. Jonty, you’re our expert when it comes to the Coates Talent League, what do you know about these guys?
JONTY: Tucker will be selected in the mid-season draft, there’s no doubt about that, so he won’t have access to him for very long. He’s dominated against some pretty good opponents in the first couple of weeks for Eastern. Verrell is a really strong rebounding defender who takes the game on. It will be really interesting to see where he plays at Rowville but he’s brave and always makes things happen when the ball’s around him.
MARCUS: He played halfback on Saturday against Noble Park and didn’t look out of place. He looks like he’ll slot straight into a side that’s pretty chock-full of young talent already and he looks like someone who will be a plug-and-play addition.
UNDERDOG VICTORIES
MARCUS: I was lucky enough to attend Pakenham Netball Club’s 10-year premiership reunion function on Saturday. The story of how the premiership came together was really inspiring; they came off a poor year in 2012 and committee members went on a recruiting mission to bring players back to the club. They were so disappointed in where the club was at the time. They got the better of Narre Warren in the grand final, a side featuring a handful of Victorian Netball League players. It was a true underdog story, considering their opponents and where they came from the year before. But what are some other underdog premiership stories that come to mind?
DAVE: I actually couldn’t find a premiership that fits this description but I’ve got a story that I think goes very close. Tooradin are the best team in West Gippsland now, but back in the old Casey-Cardinia league they were no good, always down around the bottom of the ladder. In 2012, they had a coach called Tom Hallinan, they got Matty Wade from Nar Nar Goon, Beau Miller, who unfortunately has passed-away now, in the midfield, and Julian Suarez, who’s still at Tooradin now as a veteran, but that was his first year. Narre Warren and Cranbourne were the most magnificent teams I’ve seen of any time I’ve been involved at local footy. Tooradin made the preliminary final that year and matched it with Narre and Cranbourne throughout the season. That was really the underdog taking on the big guys. Then Warragul Industrials last year, they finished sixth on the ladder and made their way to a preliminary final before getting beaten in double extra time. I think that’s an incredible story, considering where they came from. Then there’s Tiger Woods who was basically the greatest golfer in the world and had a massive fall from grace off the course, but came back and won the Masters in 2019.
JONTY: I’m looking at Beaconsfield earlier this year in the cricket, and the importance of bringing across recruits. It opens up a different conversation in the difference between the importance of recruits in cricket, compared to footy. We saw two players come in and completely monopolise the top of the order for Beaconsfield, in Tyler Clark and Mark Cooper. If you get two recruits for footy, are you able to turn a seventh season into a premiership season as easily?
DAVE: It depends on the players I think, the footballers would have to be very good to make that much of a difference.
MARCUS: I’ll pick the Cleveland Cavaliers winning the 2016 NBA title. Obviously when you have LeBron James you can never be too much of an underdog, but the Golden State Warriors team that they beat in the finals went 73-9 in the regular season, which set the record for the best regular season win-loss season of all time. Cleveland were down 1-3 in the best of seven finals series and ended up winning an incredible game seven in Golden State to clinch the championship.
DAVE: Before we finish, a special shout-out to my daughter Chloe, who played her 50th game of footy on Saturday. She’s the first girl to play 50 games for the Pakenham women’s team which started in 2017, so well done Chloe…I’m very proud of you sweetheart.
MARCUS: Cheers to that!
