FOOTBALL/NETBALL
By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT AND LIAM DURKIN
DOING so for well over 20 years, Yallourn Yallourn North stalwarts Barrie Burnett and Owen Budge’s run onto George Bates Reserve was extra special in their hit out against Glengarry at the weekend.
Burnett clocked 400 club games, becoming just the second player to do in YYN colours, and Budge reached 300 games – both synonymous with the Jets as one club players.
Having played junior football alongside one another, both made their senior debuts in 2002, and have gone on to forge brilliant careers at YYN.
Always one to stay focussed on the job at hand, Burnett noted that the celebratory day is more so about the road that has led to it rather than the moment itself.
“Getting to milestones are good to look back on later, but it’s all about the journey to them,” he said.
“(I’ve) been very privileged to play footy for this club for such a long time and with some of my best mates along the way.
“To share the day with Budgie is an honour, as I wouldn’t have wanted it to be anyone else.
“We have played our whole lives together through juniors until now, and he is the one bloke you can always count on to be in your side when it’s tough, love the man.”
Someone to always put his head down and get to work, Budge was grateful to get to the mark and to do it with one of his best mates.
“I feel lucky to achieve 300 games and to still be relevant in a competitive team,” he said.
“I couldn’t ask to share the day with a better person. Baz (Burnett) and I have a lot in common, but also do things very different.
“Our difference always complement each other, and that’s why it just works.”
Both have an incomparable (except to each other) love for their club that has seen them extend their arms across the organisation as valiant clubmen as well as recent coaches.
Burnett is a two-time premiership coach at ‘The Rock’ – the first being the 2019 Mid Gippsland Football-Netball League flag that broke a 23-year drought, while the second saw the club in a new league in North Gippsland take home the cup for 2022.
The latter, which was achieved in YYN’s first full season in North Gippsland, also marked Burnett and Budge’s first time celebrating on the last day together.
Budge previously had dropped to the lower grades for a number of years, winning back-to-back reserves premierships in 2018 and 2019.
The second season saw him take out the Jo Redmond Award as the Mid Gippsland FNL best-and-fairest and also earning best-on-ground honours in the Grand Final victory.
Budge won a second best-on-ground medal in YYN’s reserves premiership last season, giving him four flags to date.
As for Burnett, he broke the senior games record for the club in 2021, and has continued to be a consistent player in the main game into his 40s.
He has won four club best-and-fairest awards, and took out the 2007 Elder-Berwick Medal as the best player in Mid Gippsland – one of 10 to receive the honour from Yallourn or Yallourn North (clubs merged in 1977).
Each described their love for the club in different ways, but both with the similar selfless sentiments.
“The club and the people in it means everything to me, and when we have had success, I’ve had more pleasure seeing them enjoy it than anything else,” Burnett said.
After a decent chunk to begin the new millennium either as an average to below average side, the last decade for YYN has seen the club shift their culture and shoot up the ladder.
“I think honestly the achievement is our club success and sustainability,” Budge said.
“If it was too hard, if things didn’t function right or we were surrounded by bad people, I’m sure neither of us would still be playing.
“Our club makes it worth the sacrifice to keep showing up. Good people make good clubs.”
Burnett is second to former club president Rohan Bounds for most games for YYN.
GIPPSLAND League locals have had milestones to celebrate lately.
Morwell Football-Netball Club legend, Courtney Garth entered the record books a fortnight ago, becoming just the second netballer to reach 300 senior games.
The three-time premiership winner brought up the milestone in Round 14 at Leongatha.
Garth had last year become the first Morwell netballer to play 250 A Grade games.
With a league best-and-fairest and multiple club best-and-fairests to her name, the former coach has to rank among the greatest netballers the league has ever seen.
MOE heart and soul Carly Wood played her 200th senior game at the weekend.
The B Grade skipper has put together an outstanding career on court, and been a friendly face to many around the club off it.
Playing mainly in defence, Wood (nee Mullen-Biaconi) is a club best-and-fairest and league medallist.
She has no hesitation however saying her career highlight has been captaining the club’s first-ever senior netball premiership when B Grade saluted in 2017.
The following year was another historic moment, with Wood part of the A Grade team that won the club’s maiden title in the top grade.
A sports lover, Wood combined netball and basketball commitments in her younger years, playing representative basketball for Latrobe City Energy in Big V, and domestically for Moe Meteors.
Her husband, veteran Moe footballer and former senior captain, Jacob ‘Frank’ Wood is also a 200 gamer, meaning the couple belong in some of the most exclusive company as a husband and wife duo to play 200 games each for Moe.
MOE footballer Scott van Dyk is set to play his 150th senior game this weekend.
The man with the high footy IQ has been a consistent performer over the years, seemingly never playing a bad game.
Playing as a rebounding defender, his precision ball use out of the back-half has been a feature.
He moved to defence after playing forward as a junior, where he played in Moe’s fourths premiership of 2014 and topped the league thirds goal-kicking the following season.
Making his senior debut as a top-age thirds player, he has hardly missed a game since, and is now senior vice captain.
His versatility is such that he won Moe’s senior goal-kicking in 2018.
He has played in five finals series to date, and been named in the Gippsland League Team of the Year the last two seasons.
A teacher by profession, van Dyk has connections to many around the local sporting scene.
