Quick Kicks: All the quirky talking points from local footy

The coach going out with a bang delivering harsh truths, a team wanting to play with 21 and the case of the man who wanted the fire instead of the warm-up. It’s all in our weekly Quick Kicks column.

Jordan Marson has been playing alongside his brothers at Noble Park. Picture: Andy Brownbill

The rumour mill around local footy circles is heating up as is the finals race.

But here at Quick Kicks we’re here to look at the lighter side and the sometimes serious moments.

Whether it be a funny exchange, a good stat or an action that’s laughed about after the game — it’s all here.

SICK OF WINNING?

Rumours are growing some clubs in one local footy competition are so sick of winning and winning easily this year they’ve requested to be moved up a division. We’re all for a challenge but it begs the question, do you want a premiership instead of a free pass?

GOING OUT WITH A BANG

Might be a bit of a shake-up coming at a certain club in the south. The senior coach has signalled his intention to step aside, giving the club ample time to chase up his replacement, and he’s done a report for the football manager on the state of the list. It’s fair to say he was less than complimentary of two players, both with high profiles, both well paid, but both disappointing performers this season. Apparently the outgoing coach had another three players in his sights.

ONE SOLDIER DOWN

The points squeeze is a battle a few clubs face each Thursday night. It’s rumoured one local club asked its league if it could take just 21 players into a senior match in order to fit all its players in. The club denied this rumour but it has played off maximum points in all but one game this season.

BROTHERLY BULLS

The make-up of the Noble Park senior side two weeks ago caught our eye. Brothers filled up two lines of the team, with Jordan Marson, Ben Marson and Anthony Marson across the centre and Tom Nelson, Matt Nelson and Luke Nelson listed as the forwards. There was a bit more of the same last Saturday, when the Bulls had four sets of brothers take the field against East Ringwood. There was the Marsons (Jordan and Ben), the Nelsons (Tom and Matt), the Lamberts (Bodey and Bailey) and the McDonnells (Lachie and Jordan). At times this season there has also been three Youngs – Levi, Logan and Brandan – battling it out for the Bulls.

TWIN POWER

Wonthaggi twins Connor and Thomas Macmillan will never argue who made their senior debut first. The pair lined up on opposite wings in the 11-point win over Traralgon on the weekend. At 16, they’ve got bright futures ahead of them.

WHO WOULD WANT TO WATCH THAT?

There were plenty of AFL figures out at Brighton Grammar watching the likely APS decider on Saturday. Injured St Kilda midfielder Marcus Windhager was one of them. When the point was raised that Windhager was watching school footy instead of his Saints against West Coast at the same time, one supporter was quick to defend the midfielder by announcing “I wouldn’t want to watch that game either”.

TON WATCH

One of the Eastern league’s sharpshooters made strides towards a century of goals on the weekend. Coldstream’s Darcy Fritsch filled his boots with nine majors in a Division 3 rout of Warrandyte, lifting the former VFL man to 76 for the season. Three home-and-away games remain and the Cougars are set to feature in finals. But he’s not the only one eyeing a ton, Scoresby’s Adam Amin (68) and Whitehorse’s Tom Young (59) are a chance to crack triple figures as both clubs prepare for September.

MAKEPEACE’S FAMILY MOMENT

Troy Makepeace played 139 AFL games but his return to the field on Saturday might have been his favourite. The ex-North Melbourne pulled on the boots for Morwell in the reserves playing alongside his three sons. It was Jai’s second game back from ACL, Ryder again stepped up from the under-18s and Dylan was also in action.

Troy Makepeace along his three sons after playing for Morwell.

PLAYER MISSING — CHECK THE ROOMS

The footy warm-up has a whole different meaning at Warburton Millgrove. The Burras have an open fireplace in their change rooms and on a cold, rainy, winter’s day like last Saturday, it can be very inviting. So much so that when Warburton Millgrove’s reserves ran out to tackle Belgrave, one player was missing. A frantic search led to, you guessed it, the fireplace, where Ricky Andueza was lapping up the warmth and popping on another log.

CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

It’s hard not to be a little sentimental of late if you’re a Pines supporter. While Pythons champion Beau Hendry played his 300th game last Saturday, two young players have recently taken their first steps in senior footy. Deegan Vokes, son of club great Chris “Critter’’ Vokes, and Declan Jackson (son of Stella) have recently made their debuts and, here’s the sentimental part, they are wearing their dads’ numbers, Deegan with 12 and Declan with 41.

NO BOY, DON’T FETCH

We love our local footy volunteers, you can’t fault them one bit. But let’s have a moment of forgiveness for a VAFA reserves goal umpire on the weekend. He did his respective club a favour by pulling on the whites for the midday show and even brought his two dogs along. The dogs didn’t get the message it wasn’t their game of footy. In the second half play had to be stopped when one of the dogs ran onto the field. The ground in question was muddy so a bath was probably in order when he got home.

SEARCHING FOR THE RECORD BOOKS

Diggers Rest losses to Riddell had us searching for the record books and not in a good way. The Burras were held goalless in the seniors and reserves in the Riddell District league top-of-the-ladder clash.

KICK IT TO US

Got your own quirky talking point from the weekend’s footy or a player who deserves recognition? Send it to us at: [e-mail] or hit us up on Facebook.