Exciting junior EDFL vote counts

Ellinbank’s Lachlan Hedrick and Warragul Industrials player Isaac Lalor were the major award winners at the Ellinbank District Football League’s junior vote count and presentation night.

Lachlan was awarded the Ian Cooper medal for under 16 best and fairest, while Isaac took out the Bill Cumming medal for under 18 best and fairest.

Both players began their junior career at Warragul District Junior Football League club Warranor.

Poowong’s Jai Newcombe made the early move in the under 16 count, leading on 12 votes at round nine from Lachlan Hedrick of Ellinbank and Tyler Irving of Warragul Industrials on 10 votes.

While Jai fell away in the second half of the count, polling just five more votes, he finished with eight votes in the under 18 count for a total of 25 votes across the two grades in a commendable effort.

Jai, Lachlan and Tyler shared the lead after round 10 before Lachlan and Tyler began to pick up best on ground honours to make the count interesting.

With the pair tied on 25 votes with two rounds to play, best on ground honours in the final two home and away rounds secured the medal for Lachlan.

Lachlan finished the season tremendously, polling three votes in seven matches to race to 31 votes.

Four best on ground efforts saw Tyler poll 25 votes and finish runner up.

In accepting the medal, Lachlan thanked his dad for driving him to the games and for his work goal umpiring as a club volunteer.

The under 18s count was also close before Isaac Lalor moved clear in the final rounds to finish five votes ahead of Neerim-Neerim South’s Cooper Clancy.

Cats teammate Rhys George polled well at the beginning and end of the count to finish on 19 votes.

Buln Buln’s Reece Campbell and Poowong’s Josh McNally also polled well in the opening rounds to be in the frame at the half way mark.

With Cooper and Isaac tied after round 13, Isaac pooled three votes in rounds 14, 15 and 16 to move clear.

While Cooper was awarded best on ground honours in round 17, the gap had extended to five votes top secure Isaac the medal with one round to play.

Neerim-Neerim South’s Justin Lockett finished the season with 37 goals, securing the goal kicking double for the Cats.

Presentations were also made to players who took part in the Gippsland interleague carnival.

EDFL general manager Ken Moore said while the under 16 team only won the one game, the players learnt a lot from the experience under coach Jason Mitchell.

The under 18 team also applied themselves well, winning four of their five games.

Moore said the players prepared well for the carnival, learning a lot from six training sessions under coach Darren Ratten.

Ratten said a poor first half proved the difference in their only loss for the carnival, which brings to a close a successful four year period at the helm as he will be moving from the area to take up an employment opportunity.

To conclude the evening, Moore thanked the clubs for their cooperation in this year’s seven team junior competitions.

“We applied a make-up timetable and some teams were put out with their 16s, 18s and seniors all playing at different venues at times,” he said.

“Getting kids a game of football was the prime motive, which we thought beneficial to the kids and their football future.”