Clayton McCartney played for the Dandenong and District Junior Football League’s under-14 Division One side last Wednesday night before kicking 11 goals for the Narre North Foxes on the weekend. Picture: Luke PlummerBy Marc McGowan
TWO local sides will contest grand finals at the AFL Victoria Metropolitan Championships in Box Hill on Saturday.
The Dandenong and District Junior Football League’s under-15 squad and the South Eastern Youth Girls team won all of their three round-robin matches to qualify for the decider.
The DDJFL’s under-14 Division One side bowed out of contention with a seven-point defeat to its Eastern Football League opponents last week.
Kalen Murrian, Nathan Foote and Blake Pearson were the DDJFL’s best on the night, while Jake Donaldson kicked two goals.
The league’s under-14 Division Two squad lost its three games.
The DDJFL’s under-15 representatives will be aiming to end a two-year drought for the competition at the championships against traditional heavyweight Yarra Junior Football League.
The two leagues met in last year’s under-14 grand final, with Yarra emerging victorious by just six points.
Nineteen players from the 2008 DDJFL under-14 team return this year for a shot at redemption and coach Jason Quirk is confident of success.
“The boys have been a little bit patchy, but we have got a pretty handy side, so hopefully they can put it all together for the final,” he said.
“We haven’t really put together four quarters yet. If we manage to do that we’ll be pretty hard to beat.”
Quirk, who is the president of Narre Warren, said this week’s last training session would be spent on sharpening his players’ defensive mindset.
“When we’ve got the footy we look brilliant, but when they’ve got the footy our kids get a bit lost,” he said.
“They don’t do a lot of it (defensive work) at club level because they dominate so much. “But, obviously, sides really hurt you at this level when you haven’t got that, so we’re going to have to do a little work on our defensive stuff.”
Brad Hermans, Visesio Saina and Jayden Gee have regularly been among the DDJFL’s best and will be important again.
Meanwhile, the South Eastern Youth Girls squad will enter Saturday’s state title tilt a heavy favourite after thumping grand final opponent Western Youth Girls by 123 points in the round-robin stage.
The side has conceded just two goals – both to Northern Youth Girls – in three outings in a dominant display.
First-year coach David Kerr is thrilled with his players’ performances so far, but said the championship was not a foregone conclusion.
“Grand finals are a different story … how many sides go through undefeated and get smashed in the grand final?” he asked.
“We’ve just got to keep them level-headed and hopefully we’ll take it out.”
Kerr praised his team’s stinginess and has been particularly impressed with midfielders Ellie Blackburn, Alicia Eva and Georgia Punton and forward duo Bianca Jakobsson and Rebecca Pearce, who have kicked 26 goals between them.
“There’s really not much more they can improve because they’ve been outstanding,” he said.
“The tackles have been hard and all the one-percenters – the shepherds, talking to team-mates, tapping it on – it’s just been amazing.”
All of the grand finals will be played at Box Hill City Oval on Saturday.
The Youth Girls’ clash is at 10am, while the under-15s take to the field at 2.30pm.
