Beaumaris Past Players, Officials & Supporters Newsletter: Easter Edition - 2021
The 508 Day Drought Is Nearly Over
Some veteran Sharks supporters are saying that there has probably not been a more exciting sense of anticipation about an opening game of the season since the four inaugural Beauy Football Club teams ran out on a sunny April day in 1963 – just on 58 years ago.
When the Senior, Reserves & U/19 Mens’ & Womens’ teams take the field on Sat 10th April they will be celebrating the resumption of Community Football at its best after a 508 day, nineteen month hiatus caused by the Covid19 Pandemic and everyone involved is eagerly awaiting the day.
How fantastic it is to also know that we will see an exciting new look outfit with most of our Senior stalwarts from 2019 combining with a very talented group of youngsters returning to the club and also moving up from the Junior ranks. The old adage ‘Once a Shark, Always a Shark’ has certainly come to the fore with a flurry of former Beauy Seniors and Juniors returning to Banksia Reserve and their form during the pre-season practice matches has been extremely encouraging with big wins over local neighbour Cheltenham, a Div 1 SFL team, and Mulgrave, a Div 2 Eastern Districts side: both margins around the 11 goal mark. They are playing an exciting brand of fast moving football with quick, clean hands balanced with our tallest, high-marking team for many a day.
Returnees include Joel Cusack (Noble Park), Sam Gibbins (Inverloch), Max Rothberg, Harry Houlahan & Will Armstrong (Old Mentonians), Jack Gabron-Uhe, Jordan Smith & Josh Ward (Overseas) while it is especially exciting to see six members of that 2018 six-peat U/17 Premiership team play with the Seniors in the past two weeks – Riley Virtue, George Grey, Andrew Courtney, Kyle Yorke, Riley Mihailovoc & Nathan Bazzani. Other Beauy juniors coming through include Mitchell & Matt Scott & Tom Spencer – each of them from very involved Shark families. We also look forward to seeing Club Champion, Rob Cathcart, return from injury soon.
The 2021 Senior Squad is almost fully made up of players who have come through the BFC Under-Age ranks and that reminds us of the 2003 Premiership team that contained 21 players who had played Junior and/or U/19 football with the Sharks.
Of course we don’t know what the quality of the opposition will be at this stage but we do know that our opening game against Williamstown CYMS, one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia (1886), throws up an interesting challenge as they went through as undefeated Premiers in C Grade in 2019. While we will go into the 2021 season as the highest ranking District Club in the VAFA from 2019 we have four opponents this year – Mentone, Parkdale, Fitzroy & Williamstown - who will be trying to wrest that crown away and the title defence starts at Oak Street at 2.00pm on Sat 10th April with the first official contest ever staged between these two Blue & Gold Clubs. We look forward to seeing a large turnout of Past Players, Officials & Supporters at Oak Street for this significant day.
This week training is on Monday & Wednesday and footy tipsters are reminded to get down and place their tips before going away.
Your invitation is attached to join us at the club for the Season Launch on Thursday 8th April at 6.00pm but bookings are essential please – details on flyer below.
Some Key Dates to Remember
TBC (June) Life Members & 100 Games Dinner.
Player Sponsorships
We have talked previously about the hard work being done by club management to get the club back on an even keel – on the field and off the field – and while the football side of things is very encouraging there is plenty still to be done to restore the club’s finances after two difficult years. One way to be involved is to take out one of the two Player Sponsorship packages and it has been great that several Past Players including Geoff Skinner, the Hunter brothers, Brayden Haynes and the Nicho Brothers are amongst the first group to take up one of these packages..
Mick Wearne Tribute Day
During our lockdown period we lost one of our favourite sons and Life Members when Mick Wearne passed away after his long battle with cancer and most of us were unable to attend his funeral because of the Covid restrictions. Mick’s family - Jenny, Danielle & Alexander - have invited us all to join them on Sat May 22nd when Danielle will Captain the Beauy Women’s team in a home game followed by drinks, the Presentation of the ‘Mick Wearne Medal’ and some words of tribute to Mick from family and friends. More details to follow.
The BFC Footy Tipping Competition
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We have 73 footy followers from Shark Park who joined in the AFL footy tipping competition and the standard is very high with our leader, Demon tragic Ian Millar, tipping the nine winners last week and sitting second on the National scoreboard with 16 winners after two rounds although that still leaves him 2 behind Kathlyn Schwencke from the Deer Park Club who has tipped all eighteen winners in the first two rounds. WOW! |
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Thirds Team Still Has Some Spots Available The club has entered a team in the Thirds competition because of the numbers training with the Senior/Reserves squad and the feeling is that it would be ideal to have all players out on the park each week instead of missing out on a game of footy but there is room for a few more to join in and ensure that we have three full teams each week - just turn up to training on Wednesday of this week or Tues/Thursday next week. |
all Regards Committee
Past Players and Officials Association
"Once a Shark, Always a Shark"
