Almanac Country Football: I read it through the Grapevine

Many people might be best aware of Kinglake as a result of the horrible fires during Black Saturday in 2009. In an increasingly warmer world, hopefully that wasn’t a portender of things to come. Kinglake in winter time is the antithesis of that sort of extreme heat, as cold grips the place. Low cloud, rain, mud, are all part of the mountain range in winter.

 

Caught up with me mate Chris, from Whittlesea, heading up the mountain to Kinglake.  Along the way the amount of emasculated brass monkeys we passed indicated the other bookend to Black Saturday. As one does, we popped into the marvellous Flying Tarts for some warm tucker. Highly recommend the place.

 

Kinglake are in the  Yarra Valley League, sitting fifth on the table, their opponents Powelltown occupied eighth spot, in the nine team competition. Kinglake had scored a big win the week prior, beating Thornton-Eildon, 14-17 to 4-3. Powelltown however were coming off a big loss, scoring 5-13 to their opponents  Gembrok Cockatoos, who had piled on 18-11. Kinglake entered the match as hot, no that’s probably the wrong word, favourites.

 

We arrived during the half time break in the Magoos. The locals had a nice lead 10-6 to 1-3. By the end they’d had a big win, 19-17 to 2-3. One of the standouts for the locals was Chris’s son in law Josh who kicked seven and gave a few off. He started the season in the seniors kicking 18 goals in the first four matches, but was dropped to the magoos the previous week,  though not due to a lack of form. He kicked 6 that day, another 7 this week. If he turns up at training this week he should be recalled to the seniors.

 

Kinglake jumped away early setting up a 20 point buffer at the first break. The visitors fought back in the next two terms but in the wintry conditions the home side was not going to be headed. The final result saw Kinglake doubling the score of Poweltown, to run out winners, 12-14-86 to 6-7-43.

 

It was good  watching some footy, how it used to be played, before closed roofs and synthetic grass. A winter sport in wintry conditions, how it was always played. I must admit the players numbers in the Grapevine, were a tad confusing. Number 91 for Kinglake who snared a couple of goals, including the goal of the day in the third term, a banana from inside the boundary from a free kick in the forward pocket; who was he ? Ditto Number 3 for Powelltown kicked their first goal in the second term. In the Grapevine he is listed as Darby James, but all the fans cheered him as Lindsay.

 

Kinglake 3-5/ 6-10/ 9-11/ 12-14

Poweltown 0-3/ 3-5/ 6-5/ 6-7

Glen!

Comments

  1. Luke Reynolds says

    Great stuff Glen. Like you enjoyed the footy in wintry conditions, I really enjoyed watching the AFL in the chill on Friday night, and in the torrential rain on the Gold Coast. Sameness of conditions doesn’t always make for the best sport.

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