The Player’s Perspective

The Player’s Perspective

13th August 2021

HFNL Record Round 12

Well what an interesting 14 day period we as a football netball league have encountered.

From coming out of a two week lockdown to playing off the back of three days notice to entering another lockdown to returning to play again, it’s fair to say our league has been riding a rollercoaster.

Once again COVID-19 has thrown every player and club multiple curveballs in the space of a short period, but ultimately we find ourselves back preparing to play again.

Albeit we will be missing some players like last time, but we soldier on.

With two weeks to go, the finish is near for a few teams.

For the others, some could say their years or finals campaign are beginning now.

Whichever way you look at it, 2021 will forever be remembered by the stop-start nature of the competition, which in my eyes will only make this year’s premiership an even sweeter flag to win.

Will it be the modern-day powerhouse and six-time premier Koroit which once again reigns supreme?

Will Adam Dowie’s coaching magic finally lift North Warrnambool to a breakthrough flag?

Will South Warrnambool’s recruiting spree and luring of homegrown talent back to the Friendly’s result in the club’s 12th trophy?

Will Camperdown end a 21 season drought after coming so close in 2018?

Will Portland’s young brigade take an even big step than expected and claim the club’s first Hampden league senior premiership?

There’s a lot of answers or possibilities that could play out to all of those questions.

But what we do know is those five clubs have an exciting and challenging period ahead of them and have every right to consider themselves a genuine chance of claiming the cup.

It’s these times that everyone plays footy – to be successful with their home clubs and their best mates, to do something special which is unique to the competition each season.

There will only be one premier of course. Many will say the early results will show it might be a race between two, but as we’ve seen with COVID, anything can happen.

Let’s hope we enjoy one of the best finals series of the competition’s history. It would be a fitting exclamation point on what has the league’s most intriguing season.

Author: Fraser Lucas

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