Where the Kyabram football freak of the late 1950s and early 1960s played in the 1957 season has been finally established.
In that year, he has been credited in some publications and websites as winning both the best-and-fairest awards in the Echuca District Football League playing with Mathoura and also in the Mid Murray League playing with Woorinen Football Club.
The obvious question this scenario raised was how he played at both clubs, and well enough to win both best-and-fairest awards.
But no. Jeff Cooper didn’t play at both these clubs in different leagues in 1957.
In 1957, he played with Woorinen Football Club from where he was recruited by Kyabram in 1958 and went on to win two Morrison Medals in the Goulburn Valley League, in 1958 and 1961.
In his first year with the Bombers, in 1958, Kyabram won the flag.
On Woorinen’s honour roll he has been named as Geoff Cooper, but in his GVL days it was Jeff, which his family preferred.
But Jeff did win the Echuca Football League’s best-and-fairest medal in 1956 playing for Mathoura.
The 1957 Echuca League medal was won by Echuca South’s Jack Kirchhofer.
Jeff Cooper lost his life, drowning in the Murray River at Echuca in 1966, when he was 30 years of age.
He is buried in the Kyabram Cemetery with his brother John, who also drowned in the Darling River in 1971 aged 33 years.
Century for skipper
It’s snuck up quickly and on Saturday, Kyabram Football Club’s co-captain Aidan Robinson played his 100th senior game with the Kyabram Bombers.
And Robinson celebrated the milestone with a top game against Mansfield in which he kicked four goals in a win that tightened Kyabram’s hold on a finals spot.
A product of the Kyabram junior system, Aidan has been a fine player and leader for the club and respected by both teammates, supporters and opposition players.
GVL selectors paid him a huge compliment last year by appointing him captain of the GVL interleague side.
He can fill various roles either forward or back and in the ruck with his strong marking a key asset of his game.
Supporters are hoping he can add another 100 games to his present tally in the years to come.
Top Cat on board
Mooroopna Football Club has wasted no time in appointing a successor to its coach of the last seven years, John Lamont.
Its new coach, Paul Carbis, is a football journeyman who took the chance to watch his new side in action last Saturday dispose of Euroa.
Carbis last coached in 2014 when he was in charge at Pakenham Football Club.
But before that, he had stints with Leongatha where he led it to a flag in 2018, the year after he coached Casey Demons to a VFL Development flag.
He also spent time with VFL clubs Frankston and Coburg and also Chelsea, North Ringwood and Nudawading.
Carbis, like his predecessor, will be a non-playing coach and has found his way to Mooroopna with a connection with its senior coach and assistant coach Daren Oiger, who is to remain in that post next season.
Hot weekend for coach
When you are hot, you are hot, or so the old saying goes.
And Shepparton Swans coach Linc Sullivan was hot late last week.
Sullivan’s luck was in at last Friday's gallops meeting at Seymour when a galloper he trains, Misty Whisper, won impressively.
Then, the next day, he coached Shepparton Swans to a badly needed win over Rochester to keep the side in finals calculations.
Former Demon debuts
Rochester footy fans got their first look at their new coach Marty Hore in action last Saturday.
The former Melbourne defender, originally from Leitchville-Gunbower, has been appointed to replace current Tigers coach Ash Watson.
Hore played 20 games in two stints with Melbourne, but injuries forced him from the AFL scene.
Mathoura to host decider
Mathoura is to host the Picola Football Leagues’ grand final this season in the final year of its 16 club competition.
The league will have two divisions next season, with both divisions to have eight teams.
Mathoura last hosted a season decider in this league in 2015, and with little success on the field, since then, will be trying to make it a day to remember for the club.
Promising signs for ski-racing
Ski-racing looks to be on the way back.
Governing body, Ski Racing Australia, has indicating racing is set to resume in the September-October period in many Australian states.
Ski Racing Victoria is expected to run its first event in October at Lake Charm near Kerang, but more work is required for river racing to get Echuca-Moama’s famous Southern 80 and Beehag 100 events back on the water.
9°C