It’s always impressive to be considered at the top of your game, but what about the top of your games?
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A couple of months ago, Premium Wednesdays cast an eye over some of the top multi-talented youngsters in the region, with junior prospects the likes of Mooroopna’s Claudia Plattfuss and current Old Student Oscar Lambourn highlighted among the top of the pops.
Now, as the year winds down, it’s time to step back into the senior ranks and analyse some of the more mature superstars around the traps. Who most potently controls their fortunes across two — or perhaps more — endeavours?
It’s a list which bears testament to the fact the region boasts some serious pedigree across all 365 days of sport, so let’s begin.
5: Cooper Lubeck (Seymour Football Club/Kelfit Athletics Club)
It’s easy to spot people who call football and cricket home, performing at a high level in both, but some of the region’s stars are involved in more diverse exploits.
Seymour native Lubeck is one who tackles his primary pursuits with a degree of overlap on the calendar between football with his Lions in Goulburn Valley League and commitments in Victorian Athletic League.
Trained as a runner by his father Kelvin, Lubeck broke through for a sensational result with an 800m Open victory at the iconic Stawell Gift event; on no other athletic stage in the country can you achieve such exposure.
Following on from that, Lubeck would achieve 15 senior appearances this year for Seymour and averaged a more than handy 20.2 disposals, 6.3 marks and four inside 50s a game for Ben Davey’s side.
He’s set himself a high bar to top in 2025, but Lubeck appears primed and ready to achieve on both fronts for some time yet.
4: Molly Kennedy (Tatura Netball Club/Shepparton United Women’s Football Club)
Here’s another selection who isn’t subscribing to the usual football-cricket grind year-round, instead chasing both interests during winter — and sometimes on back-to-back days.
The weekends can often get busy for Kennedy, who starred in an impressive Tatura A-grade side which reached an elimination final.
Those Saturdays would have been enough on their own, but on occasion, she was switching colours and codes on Sunday mornings, suiting up for the Demons in their pursuit of a Goulburn Murray Cricket women’s league senior premiership.
A post-match winner’s ‘hooray, hooray, hooray’ one afternoon and an exuberant rendition of United’s song the next became normal business for the dual-code dynamo, who came within a single point of premiership glory in the red and blue.
It must be quite a toll on the body, but Kennedy could be every chance of taking at least one of her team pursuits a step further in 2025.
3: Jesse Trower (Waaia Football Club/Waaia Cricket Club)
It’s an impressive core of contributors in the northern sphere of the valley, but Trower’s on-field accolades stand out above most in the red and black.
Honestly, there’s not much more you can do to assert yourself as a genuine multi-faceted threat than what Trower has done in the past 12 months.
If claiming the overall prize as Cricket Shepparton’s most prolific A-grade wicket-taker last season wasn’t enough to convince you, what about a third straight Picola District Football League premiership with a best-on-ground medal to go alongside?
Oh, and of course, earning a call-up to Vic Country’s rep squad for a trip to nationals in the Barossa Valley next month makes a fairly compelling case as well.
He’s a quintessential year-round threat whose recent escapades have been all but littered in gold, and his stock is only rising from here.
2: Mitch Cleeland (Waaia Football Club/Waaia Cricket Club)
In all truth, you can hardly split the third and second picks on this list — and the same seems to go in real life.
The almost Batman and Robin-like duo has conquered most everything available in recent years, with Cleeland serving as football coach of a three-time defending premiership juggernaut in Waaia alongside spearheading one of Cricket Shepparton’s more feared outfits.
Cleeland’s endeavours largely speak for themselves as far as results go, but his leadership skills have been more than influential in propelling both Waaia sides towards glory and genuinely putting their town on the northern Victorian sporting map, itself a remarkable achievement.
The top Picola contenders are strengthening and there’s work to do yet in the Haisman Shield, but Cleeland is sure to remain a lynchpin of any success throughout the calendar year.
1: Kyle Mueller (Congupna Football Club/Kyabram Cricket Club)
A crowded field though it was, one name simply had to be placed atop the pile.
You had to expect this, though, right?
There were plenty of eyebrows raised in late 2023 when the winter forward opted to sign for The Road and forgo his stint in the GVL, but with the increased expectations of playing in a lower-ranked competition, Mueller accomplished great things.
A goal-kicking centurion, his 100th and final major of season 2024 was the sweetest kick all year as he ultimately sealed the deal for Congupna in an epic grand final win over Finley, but has he ever stepped it up a notch since returning to Kyabram for cricket season.
One thousand runs, as staggering as it is to say, is by no means out of mathematical reach for the clear-cut leading batter in the competition to this point — provided pesky weather conditions subside.
Having committed to another year with the newly-minted Murray football premiers, the mind-blowing stats look sure to keep on rolling.
Sports Journalist