There were plenty of local juniors in action on the court and the field at the weekend as the Goulburn Valley League took on the Ovens and Murray League in a number of spirited interleague clashes
For the first time, 15-and-under netball was on the interleague menu as the GVL and O&M went toe-to-toe, with Echuca’s Kate Head and Rochester’s Lexie McKenzie the district players among the squad.
Given the honour of opening proceedings on Saturday morning at Deakin Reserve, the clash immediately became a physical one.
The O&M girls were making the best of some wayward early passes and established the game’s first foothold, which looked less and less likely to fall the other way over time.
The physicality continued with hardly a soft metre gained by either side on the court throughout the first half, but a well-timed interception here and there threatened to be the GVL girls’ undoing.
By the second half’s early stages, the O&M was steadily building, consistently taking two out of three scores as the margin began to widen.
A 15-goal margin looked nigh on impossible to overcome, but the GVL girls, having trailed at every change, stepped up to deliver a small victory in the final 15 minutes.
It was sorted by that stage, though, as the O&M claimed the day’s first piece of silverware in a 49-36 win.
In addition to striking first on the team front, the inaugural 15-and-under best-on-ground award fell the way of the visitors as well with Wangaratta Rovers wing defence Lainey Draper receiving recognition.
17-and-under netball
The 17-and-under standouts of the GVL and O&M leagues went at it in Saturday’s second interleague netball contest.
Rose and Maisy Byrne flew the flag for Echuca in the contest.
As conditions gradually warmed through the early afternoon at Deakin Reserve, the action started off hot with a flurry of early chances each way.
The game hardly seemed to resemble its 15-and-under predecessor, bearing more of a focus on incisive passes out from the back.
The focus immediately became clear any time the ball entered the O&M’s goal circle, though, with goalers Lily McKimmie and Molly Moylan running roughshod and shooting with blinding lethality.
The GVL trailed by four at the first change, but the theme continued to develop rapidly as every chance that fell through the locals’ defence was taken.
The second term featured a positional switch involving two of the Goulburn Valley’s top young multi-sport standouts as Goulburn Murray Cricket stars Amani Issell and Maisy Byrne rotated through wing defence.
Things turned pear-shaped in the third term as the O&M started to work the margin towards 20 and the visiting side continued on its merry way in the last stanza.
In an eventual 20-goal win, the O&M went two-for-two on the individual front with Moylan rightfully awarded the best-on-court award for her staggering goal accuracy.
Ultimately, while the scoreboard read 64-44 to the O&M at the final whistle, GVL coach Kim Borger felt the margin wasn’t a concrete indication of the gap in quality.
“I don’t think the scoreline showed how hard we worked. Their goalers were very clinical and they did well with turnovers,” Borger said.
“I think where we struggled was converting ours.
“It was my first time seeing the girls play together, so to get some combos out there and prepare ourselves for a tournament (in Wodonga) tomorrow was really good.
“It was my first experience coaching GV interleague, so I was nervous but excited for the challenge.”
Under-18 football
The sun was shining, the wind non-existent, the Deakin Reserve deck was in perfect condition and the GVL under-18 boys were hungry for interleague redemption on Saturday afternoon.
Heading into the under-18 interleague clash against O&M, GVL coach Ramadan Yze was clear that the game would be played in a free-flowing and attacking manner to showcase the players’ skills and that’s exactly what transpired.
Both sides had an abundance of high-quality players whose skills seem to have them destined for higher honours in the near future, among them the Echuca trio of Solomon Fleming, Darby Jones and Jaxson McMinn.
O&M started the match the best, booting the first couple of goals as concerns grew among the healthy-sized Deakin Reserve crowd that the result could be headed for a similar scoreline as 2023’s fixture, which O&M won 89-30.
However, the GVL soon found its feet after a brilliant ground ball collect inside forward 50 from Shepparton key forward Ned Frostick started a handball chain which resulted in a running goal from McMinn, GVL’s first of the match.
During the quarter-time break Yze asked his troops to keep a level head when faced with O&M’s elite-level pressure.
Yze encouraged his players to keep using their handball chains, but if in doubt, kick it long and gain distance.
Heading into half-time, the match was evenly poised, with GVL’s accuracy helping it stay close to O&M — 4.1 (25) to 5.4 (34) — at the main break.
The third term started off as an arm wrestle, before O&M broke the shackles and kicked away to a handy 28-point lead (33-61).
O&M’s medium forward Max Bihun was proving to be a challenge for GVL’s defence to stop, with Bihun the most potent threat for either side, booting 5.3 while setting up one or two other O&M goals.
Despite a push from GVL in the last term, the margin was too significant a mountain to climb as O&M kept the home side at arm’s length to win by 28 points, 7.4 (46) to 11.8 (74).
Bihun claimed player-of-the-match honours for his commanding performance in the forward half.
For GVL, key defender Mac Calleja (Mooroopna) and running half-back Caden Ratcliffe (Mooroopna) impressed, while Frostick (one goal) showed signs of his potential as a key forward prospect.
In the middle, ruckman Jensen Dowling (Shepparton) worked hard all day, while tall midfielder-forward Nic Jephson (Kyabram) was dangerous, bursting away from packs.
The contest may have ended with O&M nearly five goals clear of GVL, but Yze believes that had his side been cleaner with its ball use at times, the scoreline would have been much closer.
“I thought they (O&M) were really clean with the ball,” he said.
“We got our hands on it, but we just butchered the footy, turned it over and gave the ball back to them.
“We had enough of the ball to probably win the game, but it was the little things they did better than what we did.”