THURSDAY night was a big night at the Leongatha Football Netball Club and not just because the club was naming its six grand final teams for Saturday’s big Gippsland League finale at Morwell.
They were also making a fantastic announcement about the allocation of $250,000 for a new set of training lights for Parrot Park.
The Leongatha Football Netball Club will contribute $50,000.
On hand to make the announcement were South Gippsland Mayor Cr John Schelling and fellow Tarwin Ward Councillor Clare Williams, who together with Leongatha FNC vice president Al Fixter has been working with the Labor Member for Eastern Victoria Tom McIntosh to get the funding for the lights.
“I would not happen without a couple of squeaky wheels and both Al Fixter and I have been the squeaky wheels for months trying to get this funded,” said Cr Williams, at Thursday night’s training.
“And the icing on the cake would be bringing home the premiership on Saturday,” said Cr Williams.
The Mayor Cr Schelling said the council tried to be very supportive of the sporting clubs across the shire, and took a particular in the football netball clubs at this time of the year.
“We are well aware of the important role our football-netball clubs play in their communities,” he said.
The various coaches from Under 13 and Under 17 netball, through to the Under 18s football, B Grade netball and the senior football all named their teams for the grand finals, and is often the case at this time of the year, a few players missed out on a place in the selected teams.
Leongatha made two changes to the team that beat Traralgon in the Qualifying Final with onballer Luke Bowman a certainly to come back in after recovering from injury and former premiership defender Jackson Harry coming in, after strong performances in the Development team, 12 months on from a serious knee injury.
Traralgon have picked a very settled side, sticking with the same 22 that got the job done against Moe last week with only the one change from the team that played Leongatha in the Qualifying Final a few weeks ago – Tate Marsh in for Peter Strong.
The action starts at Morwell at 8.30am on Saturday with Leongatha playing off in the Under 13 netball grand final with the main game between Leongatha and Traralgon starting at 2.30pm.
Check out the selected senior teams HERE
