AFL

Hay Lions continue to pave the way towards another solid AFL season, announcing several player signings to round out 2024. The club has also unveiled a skilled and experienced coaching team.

Three St Francis De Sales Regional College students were presented with NSWCCC Blue Awards for excellence in school sport at the annual CSNSW Sports Awards ceremony in Sydney. Evie Henley (Australian Rules), Darcy Mimmo (Australian Rules) and Timeeka Coleman (Basketball) were recognised for excelling in their chosen school sport pathway in 2024.

Jodie Hicks played her 50th AFLW game last Saturday night in the Richmond Tigers’ Dreamtime in Darwin clash against Essendon. It was a frantic final few minutes of the first AFLW Dreamtime match, which saw both sides score 6.6 (42) to post a full-time draw … Hicks was a first-round pick at the 2017 AFLW Draft and has not missed a game in the past three seasons.

Kybybolite Football Club’s Noel Black is South Australia’s Community Sports Photographer of the Year. Black, commonly known as Blackie, was bestowed with the award at the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) Community Volunteers Awards ... in the William Magarey Room at Adelaide Oval, with more than 300 attendees.

Wilson McShane. Women’s football is set to return to Yorke Peninsula for the first time in over four years, with a new competition kicking off at Moonta Oval ... This marks the second attempt at establishing female football in the region after the previous competition was discontinued due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the North Central Football League (NCFL) season has now officially drawn to a close, the energy and excitement across Mt. Wycheproof and Nullawil communities is shifting towards putting Buloke on show, one wonderful event at a time ... First-up, the highly anticipated Riordan King of the Mountain races and food and wine picnic ...

It was the Saturday that began at 8 a.m. with junior netball, and featured North-Central’s 15 grand finals of football, netball and hockey. It drew a record "gate" of $43,203 at Donald for the climax of a 2024 season that began on April 13, and concluded with a day of great excitement last Saturday, September 14.

It was a weekend to remember for the Maldon Football and Netball Club, with both the Under 17.5s Football and Under 17s Netball teams claiming Grand Final victories on Saturday. The young stars made their club and community proud, capping off an incredible season with hard-fought wins.

AFL officials were pleased to see a large increase in the crowd for this year’s Riverina League grand final at the Narrandera Sportsground on Sunday. What was described as the biggest Riverina League grand final crowd post COVID turned out to watch Collingullie-Wagga upset the previously undefeated Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong.

Andrew Bayles’s early aerial photograph speaks for itself. Every available parking space had been taken up well before football’s senior grand final ... On Saturday, Donald delivered a “double whammy” with a record-breaking grand final day alongside the Borung Highway, as well as a widely broadcast race meeting on the Donald racecourse, little more than a stone’s throw away from the football, netball and hockey.

A season filled with twists and turns culminated in a thrilling Riverland Football League A grade grand final on Saturday afternoon in front of a massive crowd at Panther Park. Renmark made it a 19th A grade premiership, and its fourth in five seasons with a 17-point win over Barmera-Monash.

In the Uniting Church under-fourteens’ second semi-final match it was the young Tigers who got the grand final spot with a win over the Boort Magpies. The under-14s played a very good game and kicking with the wind in the first quarter, the Tigers took a handy lead, which was cut to 6 points at half-time.

The Cohuna Kangas journeyed to Greenham Park, Balranald, to challenge the Balranald Kangaroos and vie for advancement in the Central Murray finals series ... The match intensity was hard-hitting, pushing off the ball and vocal taunts ... By the end of the first quarter, the Cohuna Kangas had a 33-point lead.

The Tigers secured a famous victory against Horsham in Sunday's Elimination Final, clinching the win in extra time at Central Park in Stawell by 7 points.

In dramatic scenes a brave Birchip-Watchem held out the surging Sea Lake-Nandaly Tigers by an oh so tight 2 point margin. The Bulls stormed into North Central’s grand final in a thrilling second semi-final where the scoreboard clock, brightly illuminated and counting down, still showed 2 minutes to play as the siren sounded at Donald’s Goff Letts oval.

A very significant local football photograph has come to light from Narrandera resident Ian "Rat" Rankin who found it from the period when his great-grandfather coached Narrandera in 1900. Only his great-pop’s name was on the back - Edward Armstrong ... Before this photo his great-grandfather coached the Australian Rules team at Gillenbah.

Cudgewa’s unbeaten 27-game run came to a shuddering halt in the biggest match of the year when Bullioh stormed home in the Upper Murray grand final on Saturday for a commanding 35-point victory ... In A Grade netball Cudgewa defeated Bullioh by 12 goals to make it back-to-back flags.

Keep Punching. Welcome to the final NCFL home-and-away game for the 2024 season – Donald v. Wedderburn. The final four had come down to the last round. Donald was locked into the top four; Wedderburn needed to defeat Donald that day to secure its spot in the final four, while up north, Nullawil needed to defeat the Demons to stake its claim for the same spot in the four. There was great interest in both games indeed.

The Raiders travelled to Kerang for their round 16 match against the Blues, which was their second-to-last game in 2024 ... Kerang scored the opening goal of the match. Reagan Hamilton responded with the Raiders’ first goal while motivating the team by saying "Come on."

Jade Auldist. In a day they'll never forget, a group of lucky Auskick kids from Hay were given the opportunity of a lifetime, thanks to our dedicated Auskick coordinator, Leah Wythes. On Sunday, they stepped onto the turf of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to play at halftime during the sold-out AFL clash between Carlton and Hawthorn.

In their last ever home game as the storied Wycheproof-Narraport Football Club, the bottom rung Demons fittingly torched their long term arch rivals, top of the table Birchip-Watchem. In front of a large returning group of supporters, who ventured from far and wide to witness the end of an incredible football club, Wycheproof-Narraport, with a fiercer desire for the ball, ran out winners by 12 points wildly exciting the home crowd parked around the “Green Mill”.

Corryong departed the finals race at the hands of Tumbarumba in the 1st semi final on Saturday.The Roos were ruthless from the first bounce kicking six goals but to the Demons’ credit they showed spirit in the second quarter to match it with their more fancied opponents.