Around the Grounds with Hilly

Around the Grounds with Hilly

19th May 2022

Only recently I was checking out the weekend round of scores in the Victorian Football League, the second tier competition under the AFL. Whilst it didn’t surprise me, I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of Hampden Football Netball League products running around, and there were quite a few. As we all know, the Hampden League is a premier competition and has produced an excessive amount of top football talent, whether to the AFL, VFL or other state league competitions. I think we should all be very proud of the players running around in the AFL and VFL and hopefully now, you will keep an even keener eye on the results each week. Here are a list of players to check out on a weekly basis: Footscray – Josh Chatfield (Koroit) and Angus Bade (Warrnambool), Geelong – Fraser Marris, Marcus Herbert, Liam Herbert (South Warrnambool), Tom Feely and Lachlan Waddell (Hamilton), Scott Carlin (Terang Mortlake), North Melbourne – Connor Hinkley (Koroit), Werribee – Keegan Gray (Portland) and Carlton: Archie Stevens (South Warrnambool).


Harrington Milestone

Multiple Koroit premiership player Brett Harrington will line up in the red, white and black for the 250th time this weekend against Camperdown. What a contributor ‘Harry’ has been for the Saints, a key member of the midfield group in those strong premiership winning teams. Brett, a past winner of the Maskell Medal, has strong leadership skills and is a past premiership skipper. They breed them beautifully at Koroit and Brett is another one of the exceptional players who has graduated into a top level Hampden League player from the Koroit academy.


Pekin Reaches the Ton

One of Cobden’s favourite sons, Paul Pekin, will run around in the red and black this weekend for the 100th time against Warrnambool. Paul made his senior debut with the Bombers as a 16 year old in 2014, before really establishing his position in the side from 2015. A Hampden League representative, Paul attacks each game the same, with plenty of tenacity and application. He is known for his playing on the edge style, which has commonly seen him ruffle a few feathers against opposition players. Paul is this season a co-captain of the Bombers, a role I know he will grown into as the senior goes on. Enjoy game 100 Peko!


Round 6 Matches
Cobden vs Warrnambool – What a game this should be. Cobden is building nicely each week and would love to get a scalp. Warrnambool’s early season form has been a little indifferent but I think they have enough fire-power to win.
Koroit vs Camperdown – I love what Koroit are doing at the moment, blooding heaps of kids who are making a great impact, on-top of their senior guns. Camperdown are young and a great learning opportunity this weekend. Saints easy for mine.
South Warrnambool vs Hamilton – South Warrnambool are the team to chase at the moment and Hamilton in previous seasons have matched up reasonably well. It will take a mighty effort for the Kangaroos to win, I’ll confidently stick with South Warrnambool.
Port Fairy vs Portland – How good are Portland going? They are playing a confident, exciting brand of football that will be hard to shut down this weekend. The Seagulls are improving each week, but not enough to win.

Terang Mortlake vs North Warrnambool – Injuries have certainly had an impact on the form of North Warrnambool in recent weeks as well as being outplayed by their opposition. A really important game for them to get some confidence and form back, but it will be against a Bloods side that will be keen to upstage a top contender. North Warrnambool will improve and win.

Good Luck to all teams this weekend.
See you at the footy!
Hilly

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