STATE CHAMPIONS

1996 – Year 7 Boys Football

Our 2nd ever State Champion Football team, and the first Year 7 team (one of only two ever).

Coach Gary Michael made amends for his Year 8 Boys the previous year, who lost the State Final by 8 points. “The General” would 9 years later win another Title with the 2005 Year 7s, to go with his 1999 Senior Herald Sun County Shield.

No team has won a State Final by a greater margin than this one – a 70 point demolition of Brauer College (formerly known as Warrnambool Tech) at Windy Hill, Essendon. Interestingly, they had beaten us 8 year earlier, in the 1988 Senior Herald Sun Country Cup final.

To reach the Final, they beat Wodonga High School by 108 points (114-6) at the Barr Reserve, Shepparton High School by 34 points (67-33) at North Wangaratta, Emerald Secondary College by 53 points (61-8) in the Eastern Zone Final held in Melbourne, then Rosebud Secondary College by 41 (67-26) in the State Semi Final at Scammell Reserve, Oakleigh.

This was the first Title won by one of the strongest cohorts in Victorian School Football history – many of them would win 3 State Titles in 4 years.

Eight of them would claim their 2nd Title 2 years later, winning the Intermediate title as Year 10s, beating Belmont High School by 17 points in the State Final at Sandringham.

For 5 of those (Doody, Johnson, Norman, Gamze and Stamp), it became a record 3 State Titles in their 4 years, when winning the 1999 Title as Year 10s by 37 points against Kyabram Secondary College at Dookie. They are the only 5 of our boys to ever win 3.

This team was led by 2 future AFL stars in Steve Johnson and Karl Norman. Johnson is cited as kicking 4 against Wodonga High in an earlier game, and he remembers kicking 6 of our 14 in the Grand Final. Norman apparently dominated in the Ruck and Centre Half Back.

Steve Johnson of course would become an AFL legend – 293 games, 3-time Premierships with Geelong, 3-time All Australian, 2-time Geelong Leading Goalkicker, 1x Norm Smith Medal (and could easily have been awarded a 2nd Norm Smith with his 4 match-winning goals in the 2011 win against Collingwood), and a 3rd place in the Brownlow Medal. Many would pick him as their Forward Flanker the AFL Team Of the Last 25 Years (2000-2025).

Johnson two years later, single-handedly won Tigers the 1998 U17 Junior League Grand Final as a skinny Year 9 playing against Year 12s, kicking 5 goals, 3 of them brilliant (2 snaps on his opposite side), but was somehow overlooked for the U15 O&M Schoolboys that year, and again for the U16 Murray Bushrangers in 1999. After playing Thirds as a Year 10 for the Wangaratta, he the next year at Year 11 he was the star of the Wangaratta Magpies Thirds team, leading them to the Grand Final and finishing 2nd on the League Goalkicking. In 2001 as a Year 12 though when they finally picked him, he was U18 All Australian within months of playing his 1st Bushrangers game. He also filled in for a game for the Magpies Seniors, and up to the point he broke his arm halfway through the 3rd quarter, he’d had.. 43 possessions and 3 goals.

Karl Norman played 27 AFL games for Carlton, but most say he had the talent to play 200. Post-Carlton, Leigh Matthews called him about playing for the Brisbane Lions, but he didn’t call back. Western Bulldogs tried to recruit him post-Carlton, but he declined in preference to returning home to the country. His father Steve was famous as one of the greatest and most freakishly talented Ovens & Murray players of all time, winning 7 Senior Premierships with the Wangaratta Rovers and kicking over 1000 goals.

Two years after this match (in 1998), Norman played Ovens & King Seniors (as a Year 9 only 15 years old). He two years later start Pre-Season trials with the Murray Bushrangers, but stopped going, and instead won the 2000 Rovers Thirds Best & Fairest and played some Senior games as a Year 11. In his Year 12 year, he won the 2000 Seniors Best & Fairest for Glenrowan – surely one of the youngest O&K Senior Best & Fairest winners in history. At 19 he dominated at Centre Half Back for the Rovers Seniors, took 15 marks in a game, was Runner-Up in the B&F, and was drafted to Carlton months at the end of 2002. He was one of the extreme few of that era to be drafted without having played either TAC Cup (now known as the Coates Talent League) or VFL.

Outside those 2 AFL players, nobody else would be part of the Bushrangers or Schoolboys systems, but there was a deep array of talent otherwise.

Captain Joe Doody, three years later, became one of the rare Year 10s in that era to be strong enough to play O&M Thirds. He would hold down the Back Flank in the 1999 Wangaratta Rovers Premiership team as a Year 10, and would later Captain them. He was Captain of both the 1996 and 1998 State Title outfits – our only player ever to Captain two. Teammates recall Doody having a large Intimidation Factor at this age, with memories of him tackling opponents and throwing them around with one arm.

Brett Norris was a tough, dynamic and brilliant midfielder good enough to be playing O&M Thirds as a Year 10, after starring in the Under 17 Junior League at Year 9. Heath Stamp was likewise, extremely athletic, strong and fast for his age. Doody, Norris, Stamp and Norman had an accumulated size, power and menace that would have dominated the opposition, completing the grunt work that allowed Steve Johnson to paint his brilliance over the top.

Brendan Gamze was another strong player, who would play Magpies Thirds in Year 11, and a string of Senior games when in Year 12 with older brother Simon.

Lachlan Smith was another who was reportedly dominant. Coach Michael remembers Smith arriving on the scene late, and him going to watch him on the weekend, and within minutes pencilling him in as his Full Back.

A few featured strongly in League Best & Fairest voting, with Stamp two years later winngin the 1998 Ken Farrell Medal (Under 15) with 28 votes, and Matt Millar Runner-Up on 22 votes. Frances Sippin would four years later win the 2000 McCormick Medal (League B&F Under 17s).

HOW THEY LINED UP (WE THINK):

B: Simon Harris, Lachlan Smith, Michael Hurley

HB: Andrew Morton, Joe Doody (C), Chris Cananvan

C: Tom Lambert, Heath Stamp, Matt Frazer

HF: Brendan Gamze, Steve Johnson, Chris McKenzie

F: Daniel Larkins, Matthew Cook, Geoff Younger

RUCK: Karl Norman, Brett Norris, Matt Millar

INTER: Lindsay Nicholson, Aaron Hammersley, Travis Laurien, Chris Penney, Josh Newth

COACH: Gary Michael

OTHER PLAYERS USED: Chris Oats