The black and white faithful gathered – in a COVID-safe manner – at Moama Recreation Reserve on Sunday to congratulate newly crowned senior club champions Fraser Verhey and Emily Taverna.
Verhey claimed his maiden senior best-and-fairest after a stellar season in the Mowers’ engine room, featuring in the best players nine times from his 13 games.
With a penchant for gathering contested possessions, the young midfielder was a consistent ball-winner throughout the season.
His teammate Jack Russell was pipped in a tight count following a solid season of his own, swinging between the midfield and half-forward.
Both players were often the headline act, as Moama aimed for a Murray Football League finals assault before the season was cut short.
In A-grade netball, mid-court stalwart Emily Taverna was a runaway winner, polling three votes in every game of the season bar one.
After 200 games and two flags for the club, Taverna’s class has rarely wavered over her career with Moama, and she was a convincing winner of the 2021 count.
Lisa Drysdale made an immediate impact at the Pies in 2021, earning runner-up honours.
Club president Matt Lake paid tribute to the star duo, whom he praised as “Moama through and through”.
“It was good to finish the year off after such a stop-start season,” Lake said.
“Both Fraser and Emily had super years – both are Moama people through and through.”
“It was a frustrating year. Like I said to the players on Sunday, we didn’t get to play finals but it was great after 2020 to play football and netball, and important for the community.
“It was important to us to finish the year as a club — we’re glad we got to.”
In the Reserves count, Jye Smith took out best-and-fairest honours, with leading goal-kicker Jake Kilmartin runner-up.
Carri Carter earned the B-grade best-and-fairest ahead of Britt Phillips and Victoria Weaver, who shared second.
C-grade netball was well-served by best-and-fairest winner Sarah Mislecki throughout the year, along with second-placed Trinity Keath.
The winner for C-reserve was Hannah Norman, who pipped Libby Doyle.
Thirds best-and-fairest Kobey Allsop enjoyed a strong year out of the midfield, booting 13 goals from as many games, as well as breaking into the senior side. Brodie Marriot was the runner-up.
Sienna Agg took out the under-17 netball best-and-fairest, just ahead of runner-up Jaylah Davies.
