Meteoric rise: In the space of a week former Kyabram underage star Declan Hallett has gone from playing under-18 football in Kyabram District League with Lancaster to making his debut and kicking a goal with his first kick in senior football.
Forty-three years ago a long-haired and heavily-bearded footballer wearing the famous royal blue and yellow sash of Lancaster Football Netball Club held the Kyabram District League’s senior premiership cup aloft.
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The same man was in the home change rooms at Lancaster Recreation Reserve on Saturday to watch his teenage grandson debut for the club he was a key figure in helping to the 1981 title.
The long hair and beard were still there, although a slightly different shade, as was the intense look as he seemed as nervous as he would have been before that grand final four decades ago.
Kelly Hewitt is a celebrated figure at Wombatland, his distinctive look and silky smooth skills still remembered by many who followed the club during its back-to-back premierships of 1980-81.
On Saturday, however, it was his teenage grandson Declan Hallett who was the toast of the club — kicking seven goals on debut, including a goal with his first kick in senior football.
It completed a meteoric early season rise to prominence for the former Kyabram junior football star, who crossed to Lancaster this year with his younger brother Luca.
The pair tossed a coin in the pre-season for the right to wear their grandfather’s famous number three guernsey with Lancaster’s under-18 team.
Declan lost and had to be content with number two, the same number he carried into his first senior game with the Wombats on Saturday.
Join the club: Declan Hallett kicked a goal with his first kick in senior football with Lancaster on Saturday and later in the quarter kicked a second goal to help the Wombats to a quarter-time lead after Rushworth kicked the first goal of the match.
Hewitt watched the game closely from the sidelines as his grandson kicked two first-quarter goals, a week after he had been among the best players in the under-18 match and had backed up to play in the reserves — and kick a goal in their nine-point victory against Shepparton East.
It was the closest any club had come to the Lancaster reserves in three seasons.
Hallett played 15 games and kicked 14 goals with Kyabram’s under-18 team last season.
He produced the exact same return with the Bombers’ under-16 team a year earlier, but in 2021 gave the Wombats a sneak preview of things to come.
He made a cameo appearance by kicking three goals in one game for the Wombats’ under-18 team during the COVID-19 interrupted season.
Lancaster was without premiership heroes Phil Carroll, Lachlan Boscarini and two-time grand final best-on-ground Cameron Simpson for the Rushworth game on Saturday.
And there were nine players missing from the team that secured the 2023 premiership.
Of those at least five are expected to return in coming weeks.
Hallett came into the team with Wez Hill and Bayley Lloyd, two of the best players in the reserves match from a week before.
When Rushworth kicked the first goal of the game there were more than a few heads turned, including those of the under-18 premiership team from 2004 which was conducting a match-day reunion under the guidance of coach Rohan Bennett on the sidelines.
Proud pa: Lancaster’s 1981 premiership coach Kelly Hewitt was watching the game closely on Saturday after his teenage grandson Declan Hallett was selected to play in his first senior Kyabram District League game with the Wombats.
There were few other highlights though, Lancaster making it three wins in a row to start its bid for a third straight KDL title.
The 164-point win came with a 30.17 (197) to 5.3 (33) scoreline, ironically the man wearing the number three guernsey in the game — new club captain Charlie McLay — stealing a little of Hallett’s limelight by kicking 10 goals in the win.
McLay, Hallett and Zac Cerrone, who kicked six goals, combined for 23 of the 30 majors kicked by the Wombats in a dominant forward display.
McLay kicked only four goals in 12 games last season, but already has 14 in three games this season.
Riley O’Neill made it 10 for the season with two of his own and Tannar Cerrone was the other multiple goal-kicker while resting in attack.
Lancaster led by 80 points at half-time after eight second-quarter goals, an effort it repeated in the second half with a 16-goal-to-three result.
It was a major slide from grace for Rushworth, which only a week earlier had registered wins in not only the senior grade, but also in the reserves.
On Thursday night the Tigers were forced to forfeit the reserve grade game due to a lack of available players.
Lancaster faces its grand final opponent of 2023 next week and, then, in what is expected to be the match of the season, will front up against its 2022 grand final opponent Murchison-Toolamba
The two teams are the only unbeaten teams in the senior football competition this season.
