FOOTBALL/NETBALL

MID GIPPSLAND

BY BLAKE METCALF-HOLT

 

PAST players, club devotees and all others with deep pride for the green and gold arrived at Willow Grove Recreation Reserve for a special day at the weekend.

Hill End Football-Netball Club celebrated its centenary, including 50 years of netball and 20 years as a combined club when facing off against storied foes Newborough in Round 10 of the Mid Gippsland Football-Netball League.

Periods of heavy terrain didn’t stop a bumper crowd turning up to watch three games of football and all seven netball teams.

As such, a finals-like atmosphere was felt and produced standout games, cumulating in a draw in the senior football match between two sides fighting for finals positioning in the second half of the season.

Hill End senior, reserves and under 18 football teams donned specially designed centenary jumpers, which included the inscription of all club life members in the golden V across the chest and the senior premierships of 1948, ’49, ’62, ’74 and ’81.

Together, both senior football and A Grade netball teams ran through a 100-year banner before each of their games.

Despite the Rovers being a smaller club in comparison to Newborough, especially in terms of town population, Hill End won eight of the 10 games on offer.

The Bulldogs only got the chocolates in reserves football and A Grade netball.

The community club out at Hill End and Willow Grove has an army of supporters and volunteers, which has seen them put 16 teams on the park this season starting at under 10s and a senior women’s side in Female Football Gippsland.

Once the on-field duties wrapped up, more than 200 patrons packed into the Hill End FNC social rooms for the centenary function.

V/AFL great Dermott Brereton and former international netballer Kim Ravaillion served as guest speakers on the night, providing insights into their exceptional sporting careers.

Brereton won five ‘day’ premierships and five ‘night premierships (preseason cups) with Hawthorn and later played for Sydney and Collingwood.

Ravaillion is a Commonwealth Games gold medallist (Glasgow 2014) and also won gold at the 2015 Netball World Cup for Australia. She also won two premierships for the Queensland Firebirds.