MOE Lions Junior Football Club held its annual Grahame Horton Memorial game during round 12 of the Central Gippsland Junior Football League.
The friendly rivalry game at the under 14 level was played between Moe Blues and Moe Maroons.
The event honours Grahame Horton, who became involved with the Saints Junior Football Club when his eldest son, Justin started playing junior footy in 1994.
In this first year with the Saints JFC, Grahame coached a winning premiership for the under 13 side.
A couple of years on, his other son, Dean joined the club.
Grahame was an active clubman and over the years took on many roles such as Auskick coordinator, coach, trainer and committee member.
Current club vice president Mathew Howlett described Grahame as “the type of person that got in and did whatever job needed to be done during training nights, on game day and at any fundraising event” and “he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave”.
“When Grahame’s sons went on to play senior football at Moe, Grahame joined the senior committee and was unofficially the junior development coordinator between the senior and junior clubs,” Howlett said.
Grahame was also was awarded best club person for Moe Lions Senior Football Club in 2002.
In 2006 following a courageous battle with cancer, Grahame died at the age of 47.
To honour his commitment to junior football development, the Saints JFC together with Grahame’s family introduced the memorial game to be held annually against Moe City JFC (the two Moe sides at the time).
Following the merger of Moe Saints and Moe City to form Moe Lions JFC, the memorial game has continued to be played.
A tightly contested game saw the Maroons win out 7.3 (45) to 4.3 (27).
The Grahame Horton Memorial trophy was presented by Justin and Dean Horton to Moe Maroons coach, Dean Julin.
Medals for best on ground for the match were also presented to Brandon Hibbs (Maroons) and Riley Wiggins (Blues).
