Brendan Fevola farewells Yarrawonga as Pigeons’ season ends

BRENDAN Fevola’s tenure at Yarrawonga has come to an end.

EJ Whitten Legends Game. Jonathan Brown, Nathan Brown and Brendan Fevola. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

BRENDAN Fevola’s tenure at Yarrawonga has come to an end with the Pigeons knocked out of the Ovens and Murray Football League by Lavington today.

The former Carlton spearhead was visibly teary as he walked off Wodonga’s John Flower Oval after the preliminary final loss, 15.16 (106) to 9.6 (60).

Lavington’s win sets up a grand final meeting with reigning premier Albury on Sunday. It will be the first Ovens and Murray grand final since 2008 — which Lavington lost to Wangaratta — which has not been a contest between the Tigers and Yarrawonga.

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Fevola joined the Pigeons in 2012 and was part of the club’s 2012 and 2013 premierships.

For the past two years he coached the interleague side, and this year Fevola was made co-coach of Yarrawonga.

Last month Fevola, 34, announced he would leave the club at the end of the season to return to Melbourne and be closer to family.

“It’s obviously upsetting and it’s just a bloody great town, great people and I’ll leave the place a better person than when I went there and I thank Yarra for that,” Fevola said.

“I owe them a lot for the last four years and really got to love my footy again, which is great.”

Fevola confirmed that next season he would join former Carlton teammate and close friend Ryan Houlihan at Deer Park, which last weekend won its third consecutive Western Region Football League Division 1 premiership.

Fevola — who kicked 10 goals in the semi-final against Wodonga Raiders last week despite being knocked out in the second quarter — kicked six goals today to finish the season with 59 goals from 13 matches.

In four seasons with the Pigeons he played 65 senior matches and kicked 357 goals.