Lower-grade sportsmen’s hearts are breaking across the land — no longer will “put that one in the paper” be an applicable sledge to the battling exploits of Tyler Maher across the ovals and pitches of the region.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
If you want the serious farewell column, head to the opinion section on The News’ website, but if you want a Musings HQ-esque last hurrah in the sports section, you’ve come to the right place.
I’ve gotten plenty of ‘feedback’ over the journey whenever I produce definitive lists or rankings, but we’re going to skip straight over that hurdle and just run with some of my highlights of covering sport in the Goulburn Valley since 2017 — full time for the first five or so years and then adjacently since.
THE SELF-INDULGENT
Let’s get one thing straight early on — most of this article will be self-indulgent in some way.
But we can clear out some of the most heinously self-congratulating content first-up.
Being able (read: allowed) to write a full page Maher’s Musings column every week was the stuff of dreams, and it spawned so many of my favourite ventures like ‘The Gun’ at Katamatite and playing an AFL Masters game on-permit for the Goulburn Valley Giants.
Maher’s Musings was also the birthplace of dubbing Shepparton the ‘regional sports capital of the universe’ and plenty of hare-brained ideas that certainly kept me entertained at least. I still want to see a local sport Magic Round — and the recent pre-season attempt over at Yarrawonga really warmed the cockles.
My first back page, my first front page (which was sport-related), my first Football-Netball Magazine, my first grand final weekend — my first media award — it all holds a special place in my time here.
And of course, five seasons of talking lawn bowls on After The Jack.
UNDERDOG
The Underdog documentary — where mainly Megan Fisher and Jay Bryce followed the Shepparton Gators through the outfit’s first season back at the top level of Big V action — has to stand as one of the best products a regional newsroom of our size has ever produced.
It was a privilege to be able to help chaperone the project in whatever way I could, and I loved being able to share it with 80+ members of the wider community at our launch event for the first screening.
If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favour and check it out now: https://www.sheppnews.com.au/videos/watch-final-underdog-episode-now-available/
Underdog fed nicely off the back of the momentum created by our Stand For Our Stadium campaign, which was also really great to be involved with.
LIVE COVERAGE
There’s nothing better than the rush of live coverage.
From football, netball and lawn bowls grand finals, to hosting the live streams of presentation nights — or running live blogs at the GVL grand final — the adrenaline of being on-camera or on-mic was always among my favourite days as a journo.
There’s no reading over a draft or spell-check when you’re staring down the barrel of the lens.
INVERGORDON CRICKET CLUB
The story of Invergordon Cricket Club in general is one of my favourites — a bunch of mates keeping a club alive for as long as they can against the odds.
But the individual ‘moments’ of the Inver FlagHawks are standout anecdotes within the wider story arc.
From ‘training’ at the pub once a week, to losing something like 7-2 in a Twenty20 clash one year, regularly putting six blokes in short-cover — or the much-covered paperwork issue which cost them a couple of premierships — Inver never fails to entertain.
One story I know I’ve told plenty of times — but I’m not sure if I’ve actually put to print — relates to back in the days when I was playing cricket for Tatura and the lower grades of the Cricket Shepparton ranks were still playing two-day contests.
Inver made the trip to Howley Oval for the first day of what was meant to be one such two-day clash and, before the toss, told us that if we could hold on and not lose on day one that they would be not turning up on day two and forfeiting the game.
They had a bus booked for a trip to the races the next Saturday you see and a pesky bit of D-grade cricket wasn’t going to get in the way of that.
After winning the toss and sending us in, Inver proceeded to do exactly what they had planned — rolling us for 90 and chasing it down at a rapid rate with seven wickets in hand.
Although looking at the scorecard, my memory seems to be deceiving me — I was sure they outrighted us on day one, not just claimed first-innings points.
Wouldn’t be the first time there was a bit of mayo clouding my memory.
Come to think of it, that was also the day Patrick Riordan shouldered arms to a wide ball from me on the first delivery of the Inver innings — except that it hooped a mile and cleaned up his off-peg.
I’m sure there’s no mayo on that one.
THE MAGIC OF THE CUP/ROUND BALL EXPORTS
Huddling around a computer screen showing a blurry Facebook Live stream from somewhere in Melbourne, hearing the cascading whir of the lotto-like ping pong balls and then silence as one is dramatically drawn from the ‘globe’ — “Number 54, Goulburn Valley Suns”.
It was the stuff of midday-Monday legend.
I was never a huge proprietor of the round-ball game — aside from following Swindon Town in the doldrums of the English Premier League pyramid — before I came to Shepparton.
But following local sides on their cup runs was a real highlight of my time here — and of course that interest spawned extra investment in the players themselves and their journeys, like Alou and Garang Kuol.
Getting around Cortnee Vine and the Matildas was also in this bucket.
THE PEOPLE
The people inside and outside the newsroom were of course highlights of my time here as well.
Through a sport-related lens, things like the ‘Hardie’s Heroes’ — named after the late, great man Dave — tackling the Mad Cow Mud Run and the Law Abiding Sigurdssons going on a stirring Major League Indoor Sports division two indoor soccer premiership run of their own were right up there.
So were the long phone calls with all of the passionate sporting fans of Shepparton and the wider region.
THE FOOTY SHOW
The Foxy and JR Footy Show remains one of the best projects The News has attempted across my time here.
It was a lot of work, but I certainly credit it with turbo-charging the skillsets of plenty of sports journalists throughout its run.
THE COMEBACK(S)
I suppose I should put some more actual sporting moments in here, shouldn’t I?
I distinctly remember a pair of Murray Football League preliminary finals where I left the game feeling like I had witnessed something more-than-extraordinary.
In 2019, at Barooga, Tongala was down by 20 points in red time of the final quarter against Numurkah — and, although Jordan Souter’s Blues had the wind at their backs, their season was as good as dead-in-the-water.
But a frantic final push had them claw across the line by a solitary point — off of the boot of Coby McCarthy — and into the decider.
The previous year, Rumbalara faced the might of Nathalia in a preliminary final at Mercury Dve — and with a prospective home grand final on offer the following week managed to hold the Purples scoreless for the entire first half.
But with only four goals on the board themselves, Rumba wasn’t home-and-hosed just yet.
Unlike the Tongala ‘blue wave’ surging late, Nathalia’s comeback was more akin to the inevitable movements of the tides — with the soundtrack of Jaws playing in the background.
Eventually the Purples claimed victory by four points.
LOCAL RIVALRIES
Some of the fiercest local rivalries I’ve seen on the sporting field reside right here in the Goulburn Valley.
Top billing always went to ‘Super Sunday’ between Nathalia and Numurkah for me, but I did have the bias of being the Murray league reporter for multiple seasons.
THE BANTER
Playing sport while covering sport can be a fine balance to juggle at times, but I very much enjoyed the “put that one in the paper” quips from all and sundry.
I enjoyed them less at times like when Jono Mandaradoni hit me for four consecutive sixes and nearly chased the 31 runs required from the final over — but I did still ‘put that one in the paper’.
I was still getting messages about how well ‘my boy’ Nick Fothergill was playing multiple years after I’d stopped covering sport.
And the moment I knew I had made it was when a certain premiership captain whose last name sounds like a river dressed up as me for his Mad Monday celebrations — I clearly had a ‘uniform’ every Saturday out and about covering footy.
MAN OF MANY TALENTS
John Anstee leaving a Murray league contest to save a dog from a snake bite — in his role as an on-call vet that day — and returning in time to help Deniliquin win the game was the story of the century.
But I very nearly missed it.
Late on a Sunday, with deadline approaching, I had already written my weekend wrap of the Murray league and was just desperately trying to get on to a coach to plug in some quotes.
So when I finally got on to Rams coach Sam Hall, I went through the usual dissection of what looked to be a pretty good game and got what I needed.
But given the time of the evening I was about to end the call when I thought I’d better throw in the standard ‘is there anything else you’d like to add?’
Little did I know, he was sitting on a stunner!
‘HAVE YOU EVER DONE IT ON A COUCH?’
As an Essendon nuffie, the opportunity to interview Kevin Sheedy at Shepparton Golf Club during a charity day was a true highlight.
But being an Essendon nuffie, I was shaking like a leaf, and the first words out of my mouth were ‘So Sheeds, have you ever done it on a couch’?
Of course, I was trying to make reference to being interviewed on a couch on stage, maybe segue into some actual ‘On The Couch’ convos over the years etc — but there were plenty of words missing from my nervous question.
At least the interview could only improve from there.
HOLD THE BACK PAGE
My one true ‘hold the back page’ moment was Mooroopna’s famous NCWL miracle in 2019.
Facing Echuca in the decider at Deakin Reserve, the Cats were seemingly up against it heading into the contest — the undefeated Murray Bombers had smashed them by 110 and 95 points in the sides’ two previous meetings that season.
But someone forgot to give Terry Mahoney’s charges a copy of the script.
Busy with deadlines on a Sunday (a common theme), I was keeping one eye on the scores early.
When I looked over to see scores level at the half I panic-rushed down there, just in case.
When the Cats slammed on five goals to one with the breeze in the third, I put a tentative call in to hold off on sending the back page — just in case.
When Kiara Cooper’s bone-crunching tackle reverberated around the ground and put the final nail in Echuca’s coffin I got my moment — something like ‘throw out the back page because I’ve got a premiership pic on the way’ went down the phone line before I tried to remember which way to point the camera.
THE GIANT KILLERS
When Sam Sheldon kicked a major to put Kyabram more than three goals up midway through the third quarter of the 2018 Goulburn Valley League grand final, I turned to those around me in the press box and declared ‘this game is done’.
It was less than 10 minutes later that I had to throw out the match report I had just written declaring Kyabram the invincibles after securing their 63rd triumph in a row as Shepparton rallied and set the stage for an incredible last quarter of football.
I’ve written thousands of stories for The News — but the match report from that game is comfortably the best piece of writing I have produced.
Mainly though because the action itself was extraordinary.
The Bears pulled off the ‘impossible’ heist on the biggest stage of all — and it felt like there were 100,000 people streaming onto The ‘D’ as the final siren rang out, surrounding the players and kick-starting one hell of a premiership party.
Shepparton News editor