2004 Senior Boys Football

Went within 1 point of making the VSSSA State Final and the chance of a rematch of the 2003 Final with Box Hill High School to go back-to-back.

At the State Semi Final round-robin, they beat Frankston (62-30) and Viewbank (78-8), but lost 36-37 to a powerful Oberon, who must have featured a very strong cohort of Year 11s (who won the 2003 Intermediate State Champions the year before as Year 10s).

The scoreline in that Oberon game is heartbreaking – 5.6.36 to 6.1.37. Eleven scoring shots to 7. If just one of our behinds goes through the middle, we play off in the Final. It was the 1st match of the day too, with our boys straight off the Bus and into the game.

It appears from the few write-ups in our archives, that future AFL player Michael “Juice” Newton didn’t play. It’s likely he was instructed by the Murray Bushrangers not to play in case of injury his draft year. 

Newton would be drafted at Pick 43 in November 2004, and 3 years later in 2007 would debut for Melbourne and take the AFL Mark Of The Year.

The team was also missing another gun – Year 11 and Murray Bushrangers Vice Captain Matt Graham. The year prior, Graham had played with Newton in the Under 16 Vic Country team at the National Championships. Graham was the Vic Country Captain, and played a full season of U18 Bushrangers as a Year 10. Graham sadly ruptured his ACL during the 2004 season, and would miss a year of football, with many saying it cost him being drafted.

So this team was 1 point away from making the VSSSA State Final, “without” 2 Vic County reps in the line up.

Newton and both been star Year 11s in our 2003 team’s VSSSA State Final game. Graham kicked both the winning goal in the final minute, and an earlier final quarter goal to out us up, as well as being the leading goal scorer with 3, playing off the Wing. Newton was so good in 2003 that Coach Paul O’Brien played him forward with the wind, and down back against it.

The team had other top shelf talent aside from Newton and Graham.

Year 12 Michael Davidson was the Captain of the Under 18 Murray Bushrangers that year (playing alongside Newton and Graham), and was in the U18 Vic Country team. He is cited as being our BOG in both the Oberon and Frankston matches on that Semi Final day. Davidson had missed both of those 2003 Finals due to injury.

Year 11 Shaun Gannon was the 4th of this team to be a Murray Bushranger. He would the following year be a regular midfielder in the 2005 Bushrangers team.

Year 12 Daine Porter, one of the stars of the 2003 team, was already a regular Senior player for the Magpies at this time (2004). He had already had a season of O&M 3rds in 2002 at Year 10, and played a handful of Senior games for the Magpies in 2003. He had interest from SANFL club Glenelg, but stayed at the Magpies and became a club legend – 350+ games (club record), 4 Premierships, multiple Best & Fairests, and an O&M Senior Interleague jumper.