By JARROD POTTER
NARRE Warren South footballer and cricketer Trent Cody is having the week of his sporting life.
Cody, 18, was part of the Eastern Ranges drought breaking TAC Cup premiership team – lofting the trophy with an emphatic 24.8 (152) to 5.10 (40) win over the Dandenong Stingrays.
After rehabilitating a broken ankle – that he injured last year playing for Noble Park soon after his senior debut – Cody found his way onto the Eastern list and flourished under coach Darren Bewick.
“I was grateful that Eastern Ranges took me on and the kind of people they had around the club to get me fit to get back into playing footy,” Cody said.
Cody had 10 kicks, two handballs and three tackles in the Eastern Ranges’s premiership victory – thumping Dandenong by 112 points at Etihad Stadium – with the extra gratification of beating his school mates from the Hallam Senior College.
“It’s unbelievable knowing that you have won a premiership at the highest under-18 level you can play at,” Cody said.
“It was huge especially with some of my best mates playing and the amount of banter there was at school leading into the game it was great, but I would of been happy regardless who we played.”
While the win meant a lot to Cody, it was all the sweeter winning for the club and the hard working individuals around the Ranges.
“Probably just how happy everyone was around the club there’s been people there for over 10 years and they were so excited the whole week,” Cody said.
“Just to win it for them and to say thank you for the amount of work they do for us players and coaches is unbelievable.
“The time they take out of their own lives is great and it was awesome to give something back to them.”
The celebrations on Sunday night led to an early Monday morning bus trip for Cody – off to represent Victoria Metro in his other sporting passion – cricket.
He had no time to savour the TAC Cup victory, forgoing a Mad Monday celebration to drive up to Barooga, an hour outside of Shepparton near the Victorian-New South Wales border, to play for Victoria Metro under-19 in the Country versus Metro series.
“Stuck around with the playing group on Sunday to celebrate our achievements then had an early wake up Monday morning and got my lovely mum Karen to drive me into the G and there was a team bus heading up to Barooga at 8.30,” Cody said.
“As a team it’s been good.
“We are giving the Country boys a bit of a touch up. Hopefully we can finish off the week well as a group and it would be good to walk away with a few runs over the next couple of days.”
