One-percenters

[Dogwatcher]

Loxton News Wednesday, July 24

One -percenters column
by Paul Mitchell and Rob McLean

Where are Loxton’s young sportspeople?

The perilous state of some junior sports in Loxton must be a huge concern for local administrators.
No more is the movement away from organised sport by teenagers more evident than on the local football scene.
At the weekend, Loxton and Loxton North could muster just two behinds between them in their under 18 matches. Neither side was able to field a full complement of players, with each at least five short.
It’s very disappointing for North, who won a premiership in 1999, and Loxton, runners-up in 2000.

Meanwhile the Loxton Hockey Club is also facing similar problems.
This season the club has only an A grade men’s team in the male section of the competition.
Administrators are soon going to have to make some tough decisions in regards to the restructuring of junior sport, otherwise, in time, it could be lost.
Is it time, for instance, that the Loxton and Loxton North football clubs consider merging their colts sides, if only for a season? It could make them more competitive and give youngsters a chance of learning about the game in a quality atmosphere.

One Percenters believes there could be some fireworks at a meeting of Riverland netball coaches tomorrow night.
At least one Riverland A1 coach isn’t happy with the availability or otherwise of several top line players for the annual SA Country Carnival.
However, some other coaches are believed to favour a different selection system – so the feathers could fly.

Former Loxton stars Damien Lister and Dametrius Steinert are believed to have tangled during a Barossa, Light and Gawler Football League match on the weekend.
Lister, who has been in sensational form since joining Nuriootpa earlier in the season, was apparently involved in an incident with Steinert, who plays for struggling Freeling.
Steinert, who played in Loxton’s 1998 grand final team, was forced to leave the field after the alleged incident.
A member of the Tigers’ 1996 premiership side, Lister and his family left the Riverland through employment earlier this year. The former Collingwood reserves player won the 1998 Whillas Medal while playing for Barmera-Monash.

The suspension of Matt Schutz was a blow for Tiger fans, but has opened up the field for this year’s Whillas Medal.
Schutz was expected to win in a canter, but now North’s Craig Wooldridge, Berri’s Shane Griffin and Barmera-Monash’s Daniel Lambert lead the race in what could be the most even count in years.
By One Percenters’ reckoning, Renmark recruit Paul Stelzer is also a medal dark horse.

Meanwhile Independent Medal favouritism goes jointly to Moorook-Kingston’s Gary Gum and Paringa’s Craig Ociepa. Young East Murray player and former colts medallist Mark McConnell, eye-catching Brown’s Well wingman Mark Upkett, Cobby’s Darrell Tilbrook and Wunkar star Shane Schulz are other major contenders.

The Loxton Hockey Club has a great social scene and their annual ‘Rock N’ Roll Night’ is always one of the biggest nights on the calendar.
However, the club’s promotional posters neglect to state one important fact – when it is being held. For those wanting to know, mark Saturday, August 17, in your calendar.

Quote of the week: “I would like at least one year where I don’t have to dress up as a woman,” – Loxton North footballer Michael Arnold on the phenomenon that is men dressing up as women for football club players’ revues. Rumour has it that he still remembers last year’s effort, when he was required to shave his legs to impress.

[Dogwatcher]

One -percenters
31/7/02
Loxton News

by Paul Mitchell and Rob McLean

One Percenters would hate to be accused of being parochial, but Loxton player Mal Greenwood can be justifiably disappointed about his limited match time at the National Country Football Championships.
Greenwood, the only Riverland player to make the SA Country squad, received less than 30 minutes ground time during Friday afternoon’s qualifying matches, then played only the first half of Sunday’s consolation final against Victoria.
The 20 year old has only been out of league football for six weeks and would have expected more time on the field.
With a large contingent of local support at Sunday’s Loxton Oval game, it was no surprise that some voiced their opinion to coaching staff during the game.
Despite all that, Greenwood should be proud of his achievement and in time will hopefully look back fondly on the experience.

Greenwood would not be the only one disappointed with the outcome of the championships. Pre-carnival favourites Victoria slumped to only one win from their four matches.
The ‘Big V’ has won every previous carnival, but were knocked out of the grand final match. Victoria couldn’t even beat arch-rival South Australia in Sunday’s consolation final.

The championships were nonetheless an outstanding success and organisers deserve to be congratulated.

Rumour has it that some of the players involved in the championships enjoyed the Riverland’s fine weather and hospitality so much that they may have spoken to local football clubs about moving to the region next year. It’ll be interesting to see if any of the groundwork laid by local clubs pays off.

Still on football and it appears that a local legend is set to achieve a milestone this Saturday. ‘Retired’ Loxton North player Phil Saint, a member of the Panthers’ historic 1979 premiership side, is likely to play his 350th senior game with the club in Saturday’s seconds match against Loxton.

Loxton’s A grade men’s hockey side may be struggling in Riverland competition but had no such concerns at the annual Kadina Hockey Club carnival on Sunday. The Tigers emerged triumphant from the seven team competition with a 2-1 victory over a South Coast side in the grand final. Youngster Patrick Nugent was the hero, scoring the winning goal for Loxton and securing their second title success in recent times.

Masters thrashed Barmera in Riverland A1 netball on Friday night and One Percenters believes all is not well in the Barmera camp. More than one player has apparently quit the A1 team over the past week, forcing some late season reshuffles. Perhaps the strife stems from the team’s last quarter capitulation to Waikerie two weeks ago, when a seven goal three quarter time lead turned into a devastating three goal loss.

Wunkar super veteran Peter Lines came out of retirement again on Saturday to fill in for the beleaguered Bulldogs at East Murray.
A strong lead and mark in the forward pocket gave Lines the chance to kick what would’ve been Wunkar’s only goal, mid-way through the third quarter. Unfortunately his shot was taken wide by the strong wind and Wunkar remained goal-less.

Bulldogs coach Mark Webb was a little disconsolate on Saturday morning when he was several players short for the match against East Murray. But the proud club mustered enough to field a side, thanks to some late ‘fill-ins’, including several colts players.

Crows fans would’ve been a little bemused to hear Channel Nine commentators refer to “Brett Beinke” and “Andy Goodwin” on Sunday. The errors went through to the ’keeper un-corrected.

Quote of the week: “You’ve got to get your hands on the ball,” unidentified and obviously ill-informed SA Country selector when asked why Loxton’s Mal Greenwood spent much of the National Country Football Championships on the interchange bench.

[Dogwatcher]

Loxton News
August 7, 2002

by Rob McLean and Paul Mitchell

Paringa’s under 17 team were penalised two points for playing an under age player against Lyrup earlier this season.
Paringa ‘won’ the game handsomely, but had the points taken away last week when one of their players was found to be too old.
The two points were awarded to Lyrup, right?
Wrong.
The two points simply don’t exist. They have seemingly disappeared into football’s twilight zone.
Although One Percenters understands it may not be an RFL rule, the decision not to award the points to Lyrup simply doesn’t make sense.
It seems no-one ‘won’ the game – the points are about as conspicuous as a Carlton supporter.
Surely if one team has the points taken away, they must be awarded to the opposing side?

The Riverland Football League has its own website up and running.
The website was ‘unveiled’ on Monday, although RFL secretary John Chylinski stressed that more information will be contained on the site over the coming months.
For those interested, the website address is: www.rfl.org.au

Channel Seven’s Commonwealth Games coverage hit record levels of annoyance last week, during a boxing bout featuring an Australian.
Screened around 11.15pm and obviously on delay, the fight went for the scheduled four rounds (two minutes per round).
Unbelievably, Channel Seven elected to show blocks of ads (five, six or seven) between each round. It meant we had two minutes of action, before being subjected to three or four minutes of ads.
Still on the games, and while applauding the efforts of the Australian swim team, One Percenters firmly believes there are way too many medals handed out at the pool.
Four different strokes (track runners only have one choice), varying distances, medleys, relays, and medley relays.
No wonder the past 10 days seemed more like the ‘Commonwealth Swimming Championships’.

The Australian media’s total immersion in the medal winning performances of our athletes at the games verged on embarrassing.
Each medal, and there were 206 of them, was greeted with almost hysterical fervour, particularly in the aforementioned swimming pool.
It’s great to recognise the efforts of our well performed athletes, but the jingoistic nature of much of the commentary seemed to One Percenters a bit over the top.
For instance Tatiana Gregorieva’s performance to win the gold medal was worthy of acclamation, despite being 10 centimetres below her Olympic silver medal winning vault and a further 46 centimetres off the world record, but the cheers coming from the national media seemed over the top. There were many quality Australian performances at the games, but these need to be taken into perspective.

While not exactly sport related One Percenters thought this tale worth telling.
A local man, who will remain nameless, recently found himself apprehended by the long arm of the law when trying to re-register a stolen car at the motor registration office in Berri.
The catch was that the car belonged to the man in question. It had been stolen and then recovered by police but no-one had informed the motor registry office of that fact. When he attempted to register the vehicle the police were notified and promptly arrived to deal with the matter.
Eventually all was explained and the man was released from custody, having spent a little time in the accommodation of the police. One Percenters understands that the local man’s criminal record remains spotless.

It seems One Percenters jumped the gun with its prediction that Loxton North veteran Phil Saint would play his 350th game at the weekend. Saint did suit up for the match but only in the role of runner for North’s seconds. Sorry to have pre-empted your milestone Phil. Good luck when it does come up.