The Antz Pantz
 Northern Bullants Football Club

www.northernbullants.com.au

October, 2007

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Winding Back The Clock?

The NAB Northern Bullants and Carlton Football Clubs are delighted to announce that David Teague has been appointed as playing coach of the Bullants for season 2008.

A significant part of the reasoning in appointing David is to have on hand a "hard nut" to provide some much needed on-field experience, inspiration and leadership in a combined Bullant-Carlton list that is shaping up to be even younger than last year’s - obviously in today's climate of rapid interchanges, match ups and positional changes, Teaguey will need a capable head upstairs in (what used to be) the coach’s box and just who negotiations come up will be a fascinating exercise.  There may well be a further surprise or two to add to our on-field experience.  Stay tuned!

We have to go back to 1991 and Neil Jordan’s last year with the Bullants for our last playing coach.  At the AFL level, Jezza’s year with Carlton in 1979 saw the last playing coach - at the V.F.A/V.F.L. level (where coaches are expected to earn their money), the tradition continued until the mid-1990s.  The Bendigo Diggers as they were then known, were the last to try the concept with Nathan Bower in 1999 and 2000.

The pre-season for the Bullant list kicks off at MC Labour Park on November 19.

NAB Northern Bullants Luncheon

Next Tuesday, October 23, sees an important element of the NAB Northern Bullants relationship with the local community with our "Business in Melbourne’s North" Luncheon at Rydges on Bell.  

It is our privilege to have as our guest speaker Mr. Ahmed Fahour, CEO of the National Australia Bank.   Ahmed was raised in Preston and has demonstrated his commitment to the northern suburbs by accepting the honour of our Number 1 membership this season.

As well as supporting the Bullants, Ahmed is also a Carlton fanatic and will be joined centre stage by our second special guest, Carlton Football Club CEO, Mr. Greg Swann.

The Bullants have worked closely with Greg since his appointment mid-2007 and his co-operation and advice has been instrumental in our two clubs reaching an agreement to continue our affiliation for another five years, the longest term yet seen in alignments between A.F.L. and V.F.L. clubs.

Master of Ceremonies will be the inimitable Daniel Harford with in-depth experience on both sides of the alignment.  Seats are strictly limited and you need to book ASAP on 9470 2224 (bookings close 5:00 Friday 19th).   $70 per head covers your two course meals, beverages and a most enlightening insight into the future of the northern suburbs.

Yew Bewdy, Yakka-Bucci!

Around 200 people were at the Darebin Entertainment Centre last Friday for the NAB Northern Bullants Best and Fairest count and presentation of the Laurie Hill Trophy.

With any number of leading players on both the Bullant and Carlton lists missing a significant amount of football throughout what was in retrospect a pretty terrible year injury-wise, it was no secret that the only real contenders were Adam Iacobucci and Josh Houlihan.  
"Houla" added to the trophy cabinet early on by taking out the Supporter Award.  Frank Cleary won the draw for the supporter prize but through ill-health was unable to attend, but his and everyone else's great mate Tommy Finnigan did Frank proud in presenting the trophy. 

Josh also took out the Jamie Shaw Goal Kicking Trophy - "Spider" amongst a  naughty word or five reminisced how he looked after one of the older Houlihans in the mid-1990s when he kicked around 180 goals for the family's local club, Yarrawonga.  And suggested Josh's 30 goal total was a "couple of games worth, depending on the day's form guide".

The Best Clubman Award went to Chris Taylor, one of the unseen but in "Tails" case not forgotten dozen of so players on our original list that through injury and for other reasons weren’t sighted much during the year.   Chris has been on hand week in and week out, helping in the rooms, coach’s box and with stats and just about everything he could have done to alleviate the disappointment of not playing.  We gather a recent back operation has been successful and we see Chris back on the field in 2008.

Barry Mitchell’s Coach's Award was hardly surprising - little blokes like Mitch love even smaller players and they don’t come smaller, tougher or braver than the "Boxer", Brent Bransgrove who performed to the max at every opportunity despite a personal tragedy with the loss mid-season of his father Ross.

Most Determined Player was a new award to us - we hope the club got a good price for engraving trophies in bulk as "Braveheart" Josh Vansittart is odds-on to win whenever and wherever he plays, picking up many votes in the 2007 B&F despite playing with a niggling ankle injury after being illegally crashed from behind in an early round game at Box Hill.

The W. K. (Bill) Deacon Achievement Award is one that is not awarded annually but is reserved for special efforts – this season saw one of our band of dedicated band of trainers Lucy Packwood take out the award.   Lucy has not only been the first at training come rain, hail or shine, but she also travels crosstown from Glen Waverley every session and is a shining example of the work that our modestly remunerated training staff perform for ten months of the year.

Best First Year Player went to a player that had so little confidence in himself after a patchy 2005 season with the Northern Knights that he returned to an ordinary level of Amateur football, but regardless of whether it was family pressure or just his own determination to have a crack, we are certainly glad to have Jarrod Bannister on board.  His improvement during the season was remarkable, and we suggest A.F.L. clubs could do worse when considering the name when determining their rookie list.

With the "minor" awards out of the way,  special presentations were made to two very special people over the Ants last few years as Barry Mitchell and Frankie Raso bow out.    Of course we'll see Frankie around the traps, and after the announcement on Tuesday that Mitch has  taken over the coaching reins at the Box Hill Hawks, we'll look forward to catching up with him at least once, albeit he'll be on the losing side!

Came the Senior Best and Fairest count and even as the first half season’s vote were posted, it was obvious that Yakka was cruising in front and travelling "on the bit". Almost certainly the wrong metaphore as we think that twelve months or so ago there was a prominent greyhound named "Iacobucci" - but regardless of animal species, the win couldn't have been more emphatic.  Adam polled votes in 14 games out of 18 and although voting records over the years have been lost, we suspect his win is one of the easiest in recent history, polling In reality, it turned out to be one of the easiest wins in recent memory with Iacobucci polling 115 votes to Houla's 69 and David Teague on 68. Whispers are that an interstate club looking from a quality small mid-fielder may be interested come National Draft day early in December (if Ray Shaw has his way).

All the Votes

And Of The Ressies

After an awful year that saw the Reserves devastated by injuries and defections and needing top-up players from outside the club from as early as round two, there were some highly deserving winners who remained faithful to the cause. None gave more faithful service and battled through injury when realistically he should have been perhaps up in "the box" helping out with stats than the ultimate winner Danny Stone.  Like the name, as hard at it as it comes and we hope this concrete-solid customer (yes, he is employed by Board member David Zonta's Icon Constructions) gets his chance at the senior level next season.  Two other players at either end of the size scale and who put their hands up for regular senior games in 2008 in Paul Colbert and Billy Micesvski finished second and third.   "Dermie" Brereton's Coach's award went to Nick Meese, another that battled early season injury problems but later in the year did dad and Life Member John Meese proud

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   Preston Market on Board for 2008

We are delighted to announce that the Preston Market are our first new key sponsorship for the 2008 season.  

Preston Market have helped us out on many occasions during 2007, even to the point of having some of their people run one of our barbeques during the NFL Final Series.

As the first of what we hope will be many joint promotions, last weekend saw the Celebrity Cook Off.

With that example of modesty and shyness, Doug Hawkins keeping the punters in the Food Court entertained, professional chefs from Rydges and the Catering School of NMIT played "mother" to Ants-Blues players Matt Duggan and Dave Boundy on Friday, and then the Big Digger and Jake Edwardes on Saturday.

The concept was simple - the amateurs were given $20 to purchase choice ingredients from the Market and then back to cook up a storm under the watchful eye of the  experts.  

We're told Matty took a fair lead on Friday's main course but in a master stroke, D.B's simple strawberries and cream got him the nod by a narrow margin.  On Saturday it was probably the volume of chatter rather than the food on the platter that got Diggers over the line.  Jake 'fessed to taking the back seat in the kitchen while housemate D. Mac cooks up a storm but we suspect including lamb's fry in his purchases may not have helped the cause (memo to Jake - it has come with bacon).

Your Touch of Peri-Peri

The Preston Nando’s outlet on the corner of Bruce and High Streets (previously the Blockbuster Video Store) is now up and running.

A Rare Find

An unexpected bonus from the NFL final series was a gentleman who wandered in to the Social Club and offered us a 1944 Preston jumper  worn by his grand father, who sadly passed away a week or two previously.

1944 originally was a bit of a worry as the V.F.A. was in recess due to World War Two, but there was a Seconds competition played and the photograph he also provided corresponded with one already in our possession (with the super advantage of identifying players by name).

The overall design of the jumper can be seen in our Card Gallery -  a broad red tripe down the front with white sides.  The jumper confirms the back as red (with the number 7).

It has obviously been washed about a thousand times and has shrunk accordingly - this, in conjunction with the photograph suggesting the original owner was more realistically an out-of-work jockey results in something that the Preston Junior Bullants would offer to an average size under-12 player - the jumper and photo are off at the framers and should be up in the Social Club in a couple of weeks.

The Younger Brigade

The Northern Knights’ season ended at the Preliminary Final stage for the third year in a row and in most frustrating circumstances.

Going in against the Calder Cannons, the Knights were warm favourites and looked well in control with a five goal lead mid-way through the second term before disaster struck.  The 10 minutes either side of the main break saw the Knights lose four top players with serious injuries and on a warm day and a rock hard ground, a number of players were cramping by the end of the third term.

A brave performance by the walking wounded kept the final margin to 14 points, a great effort given the Cannons came out the following week and pumped Peter Dean’s Murray Bushrangers by nine goals in the Grand Final.

The best known footballer never to be on an A.F.L. list in Matthew Kreuzer took out the TAC Cup double, winning the Morrish Medal for best and fairest on umpire’s votes (the first big man for over ten years) and the Coach’s Award.  The latter is voted as the name suggests by the opposing coaches and in most circles is regarded as the more prestigious award.  

The Cruiser is just the second player to take out the double since the inception of the Under-18 competition over 15 years ago and the Knights took out the quinella with pint-sized rover Adrian Totino finishing second.

The Knights own Best and Fairest reflected the competition result, Totino leading until the last couple of rounds before Kreuzer’s two perfect 15s saw him take the lead and to eventually win comfortably.   Another super-impressive talent in the bottom-age player Michael Hurley finished third – too young to be drafted this year but a likely top-10 next year with any sort of natural improvement.

Hopefully those players graduating from the Knights that miss out in the National Draft (the likelihood is up to six will be drafted) will have a second crack with us.   Technically, all Knights players are tied to the Bullants (and Cannons to Coburg), but we seem to have missed out big time in recent years with no less than six ex-Knights Coburg Reserves premiership team.

Around The Grounds

September and October are “all-in” months for footy finals and best and fairest awards and a heap of players seen in Bullant (and Preston Knights and even the old Preston) colours in recent years have been prominent in despatches.

We would like to report that Paul Scanlon (now with Seymour) took out the Goulburn Valley F.L. Best and Fairest Trophy.  "Best" certainly, by three votes (21 to 18), but alas, the "Fairest" side of the equation let our "Chewy" down with an unknown discretion during the season ruling him ineligible.

But realistically, we’re only talking bragging rights, and we’ll take the kudos anyway from the replacement winner, the veteran Trent Hotton who played with Preston in 1993, one of only two players (to the best of our knowledge) to wear the old PFC jumper still going around (see Paul King below).   Trent joined us from Warragul and spent one season with the ‘Ants before heading off to Collingwood (boo, hiss) and then Carlton.   He was also honoured this year being named as captain of the G.V.F.L. Media team of the Year.

Other ex-Ants prominent in voting were Damon Clarke (Euroa), Mark Clayton (Euroa), Saad Saad (Seymour, and by the way, Mr. Microsoft Word Grammar Checker, perfectly correct), Luke Stevenson (Seymour) and Mark Jansz (Euroa).

Wedged in the list in about sixth place was a Justin Davies with Shepparton United.  We thought the young Mr. Davies of our acquaintance retired because of a recurring back injury and perhaps there is another player of that name floating around   maybe someone will update us!

Under Bernie Haberman who replaced another old face in Steve Daniels, Seymour took out their third successive premiership in beating the Shepparton Swans.   Ex-Ants crucial in the win were Brent Colbert, Saad and Scanlon, all with three goals apiece and Stevenson (come back, Lukey) also in best.   We don’t know the exact premiership line-up, but others who cut their teeth with us that were on the Seymour list include Matt Penn, Adam Reid, Tim Hooper and Guy Pemberton, while ex Northern Knight Luke Jackson (brother of Ryan) has also been on the Seymour list for three or four years.

A little further to the north-east and we find 2006 player Ed Clarke took out the trophy for the best player in the Ovens and Murray Grand Final where his Wangaratta Magpies took out the flag.   The Magpies web site pays homage to the efforts despite injury of another old favourite, Jon "Hopper" McCormick, who became the first Carlton player to feature in the Bullants Best and Fairest when he tied with previous dual winner Brett Zorzi in 2004.

The Essendon District League premiership went to Greenvale (for the first time). and instrumental in their victory was another ex-Bullant in Ramazan Pekes who took out the League’s Best and Fairest Award - identical twin Hanifi polled just three votes and we are not in any way suggesting any mischief, but could there have been two players wearing the same jumper number at some point?   Another double with former Reserves player Toby O’Meara winning the B Grade goalkicking.

The crowd that we estimated at around 5,500 rolled up for the Northern (previously Diamond Valley) Football League A  Grade Grand Finals.  Probably the biggest crowd at NAB Oval for fifteen or so years and a good money-spinner, but perhaps a little disappointing given the B Grade finals on a Saturday drew around 4,500 and we believe the Essendon District drew 8,000 and the Eastern District 11,000.

Perhaps part of the problem was Heidelberg’s dominance going through the season undefeated (extending their winning sequence to 36) and always with the wood over nearest rivals Bundoora in both the Second Semi and Grand Final.

Again we don’t know the exact final line-up, but those with Heidelberg who have seen in Bullant colours on the list include Nick Lowther, a veteran from the 1990s in Dean Haydock, ex-Blues Justin Murphy and Anthony Franchina, Michael Gay, Craig Whelan, Mark Favrin and Craig Whitbourne.    On the Bundoora list we had Paul King who in 1994 became the first player to win the Senior best and fairest after previously winning both the Thirds and Seconds awards, Simon Grossman, Shane Whitnall, Matt Brown, Michael Mitchell and Tim McIntosh.

The previous Saturday saw Lalor come from fifth place and pull off a surprise win in the B Grade grand final over Macleod.  Macleod lost just one game for the year, but the "Bloods" win and subsequent promotion to A Grade next season had some wags suggesting Kouta may play out a final year with his old club (and even stranger whispers that a certain "Big Red" may join him pending fitness tests at a somewhat higher level!

And at the V.F.L level, we notice another ex-BlueAnt Dom Gleeson picked up Werribee’s Best and Fairest Award.

It seems an eternity ago now, but the Darebin Falcons created a small slice of women's football history with both their Senior and Reserves going through the season undefeated.   The Reserves won easily (as their home-and-away percentage of around 1350% suggested they would), defeating St. Kilda 7.9 to 1.2, but the Seniors had to pull out all stops in the second half after trailing the Melbourne University Mugars by 13 points at half ftime, running out eventually comfortable winners 10.10 to 8.0.

Contact Details

General Manager	:	Garry O’Sullivan
Marketing Manager	:	Quentin Aisbett  0421 502886 northernbullantsmarketing@bigpond.com
Office Telephone	:	9470 2224
Office Fax	:	9470 2059
Email	:	northernbullants@bigpond.com
PFC Social Club	:	9478 0823
Web or 'Antz Pantz comments, subscriptions or unsubscriptions	:	bullant@mail.com