Six Echuca businesses sponsored the teams, the eventual final between Elders and Echuca Backpackers, the winner pocketing a Caledonian Hotel prize package worth $300.
Elders, with Sam Reid at the helm, had not been beaten in the preliminary rounds and was the favourite against Ben Reid and Angus Byrne’s Echuca Backpackers.
But it was the Backpackers who took the title, 4.6 (30) to 1.2 (8) in the 32-minute contest, played in two 16-minute halves on a 100 metre by 50 metre oval.
Echuca co-coach Simon Maddox said the club had trained twice a week through December, dedicating its Monday evening sessions to the AFL nines concept.
“We trained on Monday and Wednesday through December,” Maddox said.
“They were our only compulsory sessions.
“Through November the players had optional sessions.
“It’s the same recipe as we have used before.”
With the refurbished club gymnasium at Victoria Park there was plenty of interest in off-field preparation.
“We have some better equipment in the facility, making it user-friendly,” Maddox said.
“We even put a few classes on that people could get into through November.
“It got pretty competitive, after starting as a bit of fun.
“With a few hundred bucks up for grabs at the pub, it was bound to end up that way.”
Maddox said the matches were a good standard, from a skill and fitness perspective.
“December was really just a chance to get everyone together,” he said.
“In January we will be back into it, all systems go.
“It will be more football and game-plan specific.”
Echuca will train three days a week through January, before scaling back to a pair of weekly sessions in February.
“We will be back into it late in the second week of January,” he said.
The co-coach, with Andrew Walker, said he had been impressed by the early season work of second-year players Mitch Wales, Riley Smith and AJ Mills.
He said any sort of competition brought the best out in the Reid brothers, while Liam Guinan had also stood out.
“Angus Byrne didn’t play a lot of football last year because of his back, so it was good to see him out there,” Maddox said.
“The early sessions really have been led by our young blokes.
“It’s lifted the older blokes up a cog.”
