On the inaugural celebration of Maddi’s Round – a North Central Netball Association initiative, raising awareness and showing support for those currently fighting their own battle with cancer and named in memory of Maddi Fitzpatrick, Charlton’s young gun netballer, who lost her own battle earlier this year – the three codes, football, hockey and netball came together at four venues across the North Central Region united as one to ensure NO ONE FIGHTS ALONE.

At Charlton, players and supporters from both Sea Lake-Nandaly and Charlton gathered in front of the wonderful Charlton Park facility as Charlton president Kris Dixon welcomed everyone and paid tribute to the amazing, inspiring young woman Maddi was. Next, North Central Netball Association president Kylie Walsh reinforced the No One Fights Alone message of support to all of those affected by cancer in our nine communities and beyond. Well done to all who brought the day together.

Charlton’s Navies were always going to be facing a tough battle at home against the strong Sea Lake-Nandaly outfit, even with the Tigers missing a number of established stars from their midfield lineup.

It didn’t take long for big forward Josh Jenkins to stamp his authority on the game, opening the scoring with his first of ten for the day, breaking free from Cobi Fitzpatrick – back at Charlton for the day to honour his sister and given the unenviable task of first crack at the monster forward by father Shane from the Charlton bench. With Jenkins proving in his first outing against the Navies that he would be difficult to stop, Charlton opted to go one out and relied on its own midfield to make entries forward more difficult.

Tiger mids, Thomas Cox and Wade Donnan were in everything early, although most of their possession was bringing the ball away from Charlton’s attacking end and the Tigers’ defence stifled a number of Charlton forward advances. Young key defender Jack Poulton was teaming well with fellow tall backs Kane Donnan and Luke Martin, making life difficult for Navies’ key forwards Ben Lanyon and Jed Thompson. For Charlton, Deek Roberts, Rhyen Woods and coach Mitch Collins were working hard through the middle of the ground to counter the Tigers’ mid-field brilliance, on occasion showing up their more fancied opponents. How Charlton would have loved to have had a Josh Jenkins at their end of the ground, given the number of entries it was able to generate with little scoreboard reward.

Tyson McKenzie was able to exert some considerable first quarter impact, kicking the Tigers’ second, helping the visitors set about establishing a handy first quarter score and lead, the Tigers holding Charlton goalless while kicking five themselves to open up a 33-point quarter time advantage.

Charlton came out firing from the quarter time huddle, in its brightest passage of play, winning the clearance from the restart through a succession of handball and clever knock-on, Mason Heenan driving the home side inside 50 where Kade Blow roved beautifully to kick the home side’s first goal of the day. In fact, Charlton perhaps enjoyed its brightest part of the day in the opening part of the second term, Collins winning the resultant centre clearance, and the homeside doing all of the attacking, the ball residing in Charlton’s half of the ground for the first five or six minutes. Billy Sexton showed sticky mits to reel in some confident contested marks playing across half forward for the Navies.

From there, though, the Tiger’s cream rose to the top, established stars, co-coach Bryce Delmenico, Matt Elliott and Wade Donnan lifting their work rate considerably to wrest control back for the visitors. Charlton’s Sam Woods was doing everything in his power across half-back to limit the damage, but weight of numbers was winning out in the end as the Sea Lake-Nandaly forwards capitalised on the work up the ground to add four more goals to Charlton’s two in the quarter and extend their lead to 47 points at the half-way point. An entertaining first half of football, and if you couldn’t see a scoreboard, Charlton supporters would have been encouraged by what they had seen, a far cry from the disappointing showing last week at St Arnaud.

Enter Josh Jenkins, putting on a clinic in the third term, too big and too strong, utilising his experience to continually outpoint his Charlton opposition. Charlton tried a number of different players on Jenkins in an attempt to limit his output. All to no avail, “JJ” breaking the shackles to slam through five goals in the term as Sea Lake-Nandaly Tigers put the result beyond doubt, kicking nine goals for the quarter and reminding the competition that they are still a force to be reckoned with.

Young Navy defender Pat Soulsby was showing plenty of character, doing his utmost to quell the wave of ball flooding into the home side’s defensive arc, with Charlton’s highlight for the quarter coming through Maddi’s younger brother, Elliott, kicking the first goal of his fledgling senior career, teammates flocking from over the ground to celebrate.

In the final quarter, with the heat well and truly out of the game, interest surrounded whether Sea Lake-Nandaly would be able to stretch the margin out to over the century. Having taken a game-high 98-point lead into the last change, it would have seemed at short odds to occur. Charlton, however, with pride on the line, and the day meaning so much to so many, dug deep, the Woods and Taylor brothers running themselves into the ground in an effort to minimise the pain.

Charlton star, Tom Finlay, freed the shackles applied all day by an incredibly close- checking Jordan Bath to also break down the Tigers’ forward thrusts. Tiger ruckman, the evergreen, ever-present Ryan O’Sullivan continued to dominate centre bounces and around the ground, showing no signs of slowing down and providing great service to his star studded midfield.

With the last goal of the game, the visitors stretched the lead to over the magical 100-point line, eventually winning 21.13.139 to Charlton’s 5.5.35.

Best for Sea Lake-Nandaly Tigers: Josh Jenkins (10 goals), Ryan O’Sullivan, Tyson McKenzie, Bryce Delmenico, Luke Martin, Jack Poulton.

For Charlton: Patrick Soulsby, Sam Woods, Rhyen Woods, Deek Roberts, Billy Sexton, Kade Blow.

Played in loving memory of Maddi Fitzpatrick – gone, but never forgotten – NO ONE FIGHTS ALONE.

See all the photos in the issue.
This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 18 June 2024.