2019 was a very good season for the Avoca Football Netball Club.
Three premierships for the club.
A & B Grade Netballers won on the netball court, and the Under 14.5 footballers broke the premiership drought on the football oval when they won our first football premiership for 21 years. The A grade netballers were undefeated Premiers and Champions!
We also had a couple of our netballers win individual awards at League level with Jess Hollett winning the Nalder Tracey Medal for the A Grade MCDFNL Best & Fairest award, and Colleen Drummond won the C Grade MCDFNL Best & Fairest award.
Maggie Quinlan was Runner Up in the B Grade MCDFNL Netball award by 3 votes.
Jack Duke was fourth in the Berry Powell medal for the MCDFNL Senior Football Best & Fairest, losing to the winner by just 2 votes.
Jason Hunt was third in the MCDFNL Reserves Best & Fairest award by 5 votes.
Taylor Kennedy was Runner Up in the MCDFNL Under 17.5 Best & Fairest award by 2 votes.
Jai Howell was Runner Up in the Under 14.5 MCDFNL Best & Fairest award by 1 vote.
Jai was also the winner of the MCDFNL Under 14.5 Leading goal kicker award with 82 goals, and was voted as the best player in the Grand Final.
There were a number of players that played milestone games during the season with two of the major milestones being Stacey Blair and Colleen Drummond, both playing there 450th game.
200 games were played by Caitlin Drummond, Rhys Walkley, Nathan Field, Riley Wardlaw and Taylor Kennedy.
150 games were played by Casey Walkley, Lachlan Wardlaw, Samsen Marlow and Noah Wardlaw.
100 games were played by Gina Beavis, Taylor Powers, Bryley Salmon, Francesca Howe, Sid Robinson, Will Robinson and Geordie Gollop was lucky enough to play his 100th game in the Under 14.5 Grand Final.
Players to play their first senior game of football for Avoca were Jamie Beavis, Jack Duke, Simon Elliott, Jesse Janes, Daniel Kitchin, Damon Lewis, Hadrian Prest, Dylan Sloane and Nemani Valucava.
Jack Duke kicked 18 goals against Dunolly to be third on the LGK table behind Gerard Darcy 22 goals (1982) and Jim Jess 20 goals (1993).
Nick Coghlan kicked 16 goals against Campbells Creek to be fourth on the goal kicking table.
James Walton broke the club Reserves goal kicking record when he kicked 16 goals in a game against Maryborough Rovers. He also kicked eleven goals against Campbells Creek and finished with 60 goals for the season.
The senior football team kicked a massive 53.29.347 to Nil against Campbells Creek which was our second highest score ever. The highest is 57.23.365 vs Moonambel in 1982.
Interleague Reps.
Maddy Egan and Caitlin Drummond were selected in the A Grade Netball Team.
Anthony Brown, Jamie Beavis, Samsen Marlow and Taylor Kennedy were all selected in the MCDFNL Under 18 Football Team to play Colac & District FNL
Our social committee once again excelled themselves with a number of quality events including the Cruise Night which was a very popular event.
Our major raffle was also a very successful fundraiser for the club with the winners of the prizes being as follows
1st Prize is Judy Walkley.
2nd Prize is Lauren Robinson
3rd Prize is Ian Harvey
4th Prize is Daniel Duke
5th Prize is Zac Burge.
We thank ULTRA Broadbeach for there very generous first prize donation and we also thank Mount Avoca, Taltarni, and Sally's Paddock for your wine contributions and to Mitre 10 and the Vic Hotel for your generous contribution to the Raffle.
We also congratulate Paige Scott and Jai Howell for being selected in the Under 15 squad of the Western Bulldogs next generation academy.
Jai also participated in the MCDFNL interleague program, representing the league as Vice Captain of the Under 15 Squad and was named Best on Ground for the Worksafe Community Championships game vs. Colac & District FNL.
Paige Scott has played football for Avoca in recent seasons and she is now over the age limit to play in the boys competition, so she played for Carisbrook in the girls comp in 2019 and won the AFL Goldfields Under 18 Football League Best & Fairest playing for Carisbrook. An amazing feat considering she is still just 15 years of age.
Paige was named in the best players in every round except one.
And she also won the Rookie of the year and was named in the team of the year.
Vale Kath, Sandra and Allan.
We lost a couple of our former Ladies committee members in Kath Clohesy and Sandra Robinson, who both passed away during the season, Kath was also a Life Member of the club and we offer our condolences to the Clohesy and Robinson Families.
We also lost Allan Lallard who was a long time member of our club, and a regular trophy donor for many years. Our sympathies to the Lallard Family.
Our Sponsorship program was again very successful and it was very encouraging to have Hewitt and Whitty, and Rivulis Irrigation purchase a new set of playing Guernseys for our Under 17.5 and Under 14,5 football teams.
We thank Robin and Chris Cocking and Rivulis for their very generous contribution and we thank all of our sponsors for their generosity over many seasons.
The club has come a long way in the past couple of seasons and we are very proud of our second placed finish in the prestigious MCDFNL Carlton Trophy which is determined by premiership points over all grades of football and netball. Our target is to continue to rise and hopefully win this award in 2020.
A very big thank you to all of our sponsors, members, coaching staff and volunteers for all of your hard work and support of our club in season 2019.
