Corowa’s Finn Osborne was co-captain of the Under 18’s O and M team and proudly held the winner’s trophy.
Ovens and Murray triumphed over Goulburn Valley in football by 55 points but after leading for most of the game in netball, narrowly lost by five goals, at Mooroopna last Saturday.
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League football coach Damian Sexton was thrilled with how the whole side played. “Relief!” was the first word spoken to The Free Press about the result.
“When you go over there you go to win of course. You put all the hard work in to line up and go through the team and the game, the win is a relief.
“We had the best 22 boys playing, fantastic guys, good leaders, the whole group showed up. We had good balance - experienced campaigners and youth who wanted to be good.”
O and M beat GV 18.11.119 to 9.10. 64. GV started well but O and M got in front and led 4.2.26 to 1.2 at the first break, going into the long break 7.6.48 to 4.5.29.
The lead extended to 34 points by three-quarter-time. The eventual winners appeared in control. But the winning coach respected GV. “If GV had have kicked the first couple in the last it would have been game on,” he said.
Ovens and Murray football and netball representatives, netball coach Georgie Bruce, Cam Wilson, Olivia Sinclair, Kaelan Bradkte, Sophie Hanrahan and Grace Senior.
Wangaratta’s Joe Richards was named best afield, claiming the AFL Victoria Medal and Yarrawonga’s full-forward Leigh Williams was too good, booting five goals.
Asked specifically about Corowa Rutherglen’s two representatives, Sexton described Kaelen Bradtke who kicked two goals, as “a young kid coming up” who has “great qualities and a big future ahead of him”. “He’s a very good player.”
“Cam Wilson is fantastic. I believe if he stays at Corowa he’ll be a long-time O and M player.”
Last Sunday’s contest was the first and only country football interleague match this year in Victoria, after an absence of three years due to Covid-19.
Sexton was full of praise for the O and M staff for organising the interleague match. “It’s great that it’s back. I had good staff support, especially Craig (general manager Craig Miller). “He’s second to none,” the modest coach and first-time league coach said.
League thirds coach Tim McGrath from Albury echoed Sexton’s comments about the interleague match’s return and the good assistance he received.
“We got jumped early and half-way through the second quarter we were three goals down - fortunately they kicked a lot of points,” McGrath commented about the match.
“We clawed our way back in the second half of the quarter to be a goal down at half-time (5.7 to 5.1). Then with our running game we kicked six goals to one in the third and went on to win by 18 points (14.9.93 to 11.9.75).”
The two Corowa representatives for O and M, Kaelan Bradtke and Cam Wilson were praised by coach Damian Sexton.
The coach praised Corowa’s sole representative Finn Osborne who was co-captain, along with Wang Rovers’ Brodie Paul.
“Finn was very good, midfield changing half-forward, had plenty of the ball and led from the front,” McGrath said.
In netball, O and M led narrowly for most of the game but went down in the end by five goals. It was somewhat cheeky of GV-led Di Hanslow to call in big gun Julie Hornwig to assist her coaching on the day.
“It was always going to be a great clash and that’s what the spectators got,” O and M coach Georgie Bruce said.
“It was a very fast game where some of the best players from both leagues battled it out,” Corowa’s coach.
“The biggest upset of the day was Corowa Rutherglen star Liv Sinclair leaving the court in the third term with what looks like a season ending achilles injury.”
Olivia Sinclair starred for the O and M before suffering what appears to be a season-ending achilles injury. Photo by Aydin Payne.
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