1997 Intermediate Boys Football

Equal 3rd in the State. 

This cohort (Class Of 1999) could have easily won 3 State Titles.

Seventeen of the Year 10s had two years prior gone within of 8 points of the 1995 Year 8 State Title. Fifteen of the team would 2 years later win the 1999 Herald Sun Country Shield, without even having to use Jon McCormick (avoiding injury in his draft year).

In 1997 it was wins against Wodonga High School (12 goals), Wangaratta Secondary College (198 points), Tallangatta, a team in Shepparton, and Fairhill High School. 

We lost to an extremely strong Galen team at the Showgrounds which had a kid called Tim “Wilbur” Williams jumping on everyone’s heads at Centre Half Forward, in what many of the boys talk about almost 30 years later as the most dominant schoolboy display they ever saw. Future 200-gamer for Carlton, Ryan Houlihan, was also in their line-up tearing us to shreds.

We then lost the State Semi Final at Scammell Reserve in Oakleigh in the rain. Nobody has much recollection of the match. Some recall it being “close – within a goal or two”. One vivid memory is Matt Cameron being almost knocked out by a kick (wet, heavy ball) in the face while standing the mark. Some recall heated exchanges traded between the two benches. Photos show it being a physical match, with the opposition seemingly roughing us up. Nobody recalls who they were.

The team featured two future AFL players (Carlton teammates), the only time they teamed up at school – Year 10 Jon McCormick and Year 9 Sean O’Keefe. Both would be regulars in the U18 Murray Bushrangers in 1999, two years later. Incredibly they would be teammates with Houlihan at The Blues as well.

O’Keefe was already playing O&M Thirds for the Rovers as a Year 9 (unheard of in that era). He would the next year make the Vic Country Under 16s, and be picked in the AIS Australian Academy, seen as one of the Top 20 Footballers in Australia (as was Houlihan), who played against Ireland.

McCormick had also been a Football prodigy, touted as on the path to the AFL as early as the Mini Midgets (now known as Auskick). Four  years prior “Hopper” was the Centreman in the Victorian Primary state team (alongside future Brisbane champion Jonathon Brown) that won the 1993 National Championships.

It’s hard to describe how good he was, so it’s best to use a description in The Weekly Times by that State team’s coach, which reads: 

“Jon was ranked as the number one player. He was amazing, special awareness and an uncanny ability to see exactly where all the opposition players and his team members are. He is skilful at using both the left and right sides of his body and handles the ball with confidence and ease. He is extremely talented.”

During our 1995 Year 8 campaign (State Runner-Up), McCormick kicked 9 goals in a match against Broadford playing as rover, and easily won the Junior League’s Ken Farrell Medal (League B&F U15s) as a bottom-ager. The following year, McCormick would star for the 1996 U15 Ovens & Murray Schoolboys, winning their Best Player award at the Championships. One teammate from that team who would play 200+ AFL games, said years later: ”Hopper was the best junior footballer I ever played with.”

McCormick would soon after this campaign win the 1997 McCormick Medal (League Best & Fairest, U17s Junior League).. After playing for the Victorian State Under 17 Cricket team in 1998, he the next year would finish 3rd in the 1999 Murray Bushrangers B&F and of course go on to play 26 games for Carlton, come Runner-Up in the VFL Liston Trophy, and win an O&M Morris Medal. Most judge “Hopper” as someone that could have played many more AFL games, if not for injuries (particularly stress fractures in his feet) curtailing his ability of be fully fit while at Carlton.