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HERALD COUNTRY SHIELD RUNNER-UP
1997 Senior Boys Football
This team went Runner-Up in the Herald Sun Country Shield, cruelled by injury to their star player.
They lost by 55 points (4.2.26 – 11.15.81) after getting jumped early by Swan Hill Secondary College on a windy day at VFL Park, Waverley.
Coached by Wangaratta Rovers legend Joe Wilson, who played in our 1987 Herald Sun Country Shield winning team and was later drafted to Brisbane.
Most say this team would have won the Shield if not for their star Full Forward Scott Thompson injuring his ACL in an earlier game against Galen at City Oval.
“Thommo” was playing Murray Bushrangers at the time, with several AFL clubs showing interest in drafting him. Teammates describe him as being able to do anything – jumping on heads, bombing goals from outside 50. He had kicked 4 in a quarter against Kyabram in an earlier school game that year. Post-Reconstruction, he was still good enough to kick 7.7 in a Senior O&M Grand Final as a 20 year old for Corowa Rutherglen.
The team had a number of other top talents, including 2 other Murray Bushrangers – Year 11s Nathan Parker and Andy Murray, son of St Kilda Premiership player & Team Of The Century Full Back Bob.
The 196cm Parker played 4 AFL Reserves games the following year as a Year 12 (3 for Melbourne, 1 for Carlton). He would play in the Murray Bushrangers U18 Premiership team.
Murray had won the 1996 McCormick Medal (League B&F) in the Junior League the year before as a bottom-ager, and played 1996 U15 O&M Schoolboys as well, and his 1998 performances for the Rovers Thirds Premiership team are still talked about by teammates as the most dominant they have seen by a teenager, with similar attributes to Thompson – grabs over packs, long goals etc.
On top of this, there was Year 11 Stuart Cooper. “Coops” by all accounts could have walked into the Bushrangers had he wanted to, instead of playing at King Valley in the Ovens & King. He was that good that the following year, North Melbourne full back Mick Martyn turned up to the 1998 State Semi Final to watch Cooper, with the Kangaroos looking at drafting him. Cooper inexplicably hadn’t been allowed to play, and had to wait 3 more years for the Kangaroos to recruit him (Rookie List in 2001). He later won an O&K Baker Medal (League B&F) as a 23 year old
The potential forward line is frightening – Thompson, Parker, Murray, Cooper. All Bushrangers level forwards, all with interest from AFL clubs in that year or the following year.
Throw in Scott Semple (1996 Rovers Thirds Premiership player the year prior as a Year 10, and who once kicked 12 goals in a Junior League game) and the near-on 200cm David Cavicchiolo (Greta), and it’s likely the most stacked forward line we’ve ever had. I wonder if during the campaign, they all lined up in the same game. One would have to go back to CHB.
There was plenty of other talent in the smaller brigade too. Daniel McLaughlin had won the 1996 O&M Leo Dean Medal (League B&F) in the Thirds the year before for the Rovers, and was playing Seniors at the time. “Dacca” played plenty of Senior O&M Football, and later coached Greta. He is cited as kicking 4 goals in the Kyabram game of 1997.
McLaughlin, Semple and Rohan Woodward had all played in the 1996 Rovers Thirds Premiership the year prior – McLaughlin and Woodward as Year 11s, Semple a Year 10..
Troy Walker would the following year get 24 votes in the Leo Dean Medal for the Rovers.
Todd Fisher had won the Ken Farrell Medal (U15 League B&F) in the Junior eager 2 years prior. Semple (1994 at Year 8) and Murray (1995 at Year 9) had won the League Goalkicking in the Junior League 2 and 3 years prior.
Interestingly, for Swan Hill it was revenge for 1994, when our Intermediate team beat them in the State Final by 33 points. Many of the Year 12s in the Swan Hill team, would have likely been the same Year 9s from that year. From our team – Cox, Fisher, Fulton, Woodward.
One of the greatest ever School Football stories comes from this Grand Final. One player was disallowed from playing, and when the Bus stopped at Glenrowan to pick up a group on the way to the City, he was among them. Coach Wilson had to deliver the Bad News – he couldn’t board the bus. However when the team arrived to the Waverley Park change room, Smith was already there. He’s found his own way to Melbourne. Wilson was so impressed with the effort, he… started him in at the Centre Bounce.
One of the Helpers recalls sitting in the Control Box at Waverley Park ready to blow the siren at the famous 100,000 capacity stadium. He remembers seeing a button labelled “Hawthorn rooms” and pressing it repeatedly, bamboozled as to why no sound was coming out. Later, he found out each time he pressed it, it had blown a loud siren “inside” the change room his schoolmates were sitting in trying to listen to Coach Wilson’s pre-match address. Wilson was repeatedly interrupted by the wailing sound, not knowing his student was in the box the culprit.
The Final is famous for another story part of our folklore. There was a Humanities Excursion the next day in the city, with some of the Footballers (and helpers) booked to attend. A group of them, boys and girls, decided to stay overnight in Melbourne. A couple of Hotel Rooms were booked, and having gotten intel from an older sister who attended the nearby University Of Melbourne, they spent most of the night at Naughtin’s in Carlton, one of the “College pubs”, assuming bar staff would assume they were Uni students. They were correct, and then the next morning met their Humanities classmates.
HOW THEY LINED UP – IF FULL STRENGTH –
B: Adam Watt, Dave Lowry, Simon Patterson
HB: Heath Fulton, Rohan Woodward, Scott Semple
C: Adam Lamb, Todd Fisher, Matt Smith
HF: Andy Murray, Nathan Parker, Stuart Cooper
F: David Cavicchiolo, Scott Thompson, Matt Llewellyn
RUCK: Matthew Cox, Daniel McLaughlin (C), Troy Walker
INTER: Nick Norris, Andrew Hurley, Chris Thomas.
