Narre South Lions under 12 Red Division team manager Michelle Pickett, assistant coach Derek Cavalot, head coach Jason Cartwright, runner Meyrick Pickett, Andrew Carr, James Bailey, Nicholas Pickett, Mehdi Daoud, Kane O’Connell-Webb, Daniel Rodrigues, captain Jake Wilson, Scott Emms, Cassie Knowles, Reid Church, Matthew Dyer, Luke Butler, Blake Payne, Grant Uranie, Max Hardingham, Hayden Cartwright, Mitchell Dyer, Nicholas Walker, Joel Hanham, Brad Cavalot and Tim Phillips celebrate the club’s inaugural premiership win.By Marc McGowan
NARRE South Lions Junior Football Club is preparing to become a force in the Dandenong District Junior Football League after claiming its first premiership last month.
It has taken four years to achieve ultimate success, but the club has grown in stature each season and sent 14 teams on to the field in 2007.
The victory came in the under 12 Red Division, with the Lions overcoming Berwick by six points in a nail-biting finish.
Narre South was also a grand finalist in the under 10 Blue Division.
President John Rich feels the triumph can be attributed to the hard work being done behind the scenes.
“As they say, surround yourself with good people and you’ll always have good results,” he said.
“At Narre South, we’ve got an amazing amount of good people who have been dedicated to creating a family-friendly and safe culture which will set this club up for many years.”
There were also individual accomplishments to celebrate, with Jordan Wachter (under 13 Red Division) and Liam Myatt (under 10 Red Division) claiming league best and fairest honours.
Bradley Cavalot (under 12 Red Division) finished runner-up, while Justin McKenzie (under 14 Blue Division) and Luke Vincent (under 13 Blue Division) placed third in their respective vote counts.
To top it all off, the club’s Youth Girls teams have produced two Victorian representatives in Michelle Donnelly and Nicole Cicciari.
Donnelly played for the Victorian under 19 squad at the AFL Women’s Championships in Canberra in July and is the second emergency for the Victorian under 18s’ trip to Queensland this month.
Cicciari will be heading north too after also being selected in the Victorian under 18 side.
“We are such a young club and the talent that we’ve got is fantastic,” Rich said.
“You don’t usually expect that sort of thing until you’ve established yourselves five or 10 years down the track.”
