Eastern Football League: Still kicking on

Remove this Banner Ad

G

Goady138

Club Legend
Veteran Hawthorn Hawks - Box Hill 2011 Sponsor
Dec 28, 2008
1,462
723
Eastern foot hills.
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Box Hill.
Well worth a read.

Eastern Football League: Still kicking on
BY ANNA WHITELAW
29 Mar, 2011 01:15 PM
It’s a warm March evening, and the boys from the Blackburn Football Club are warming up before their first pre-season practice match in the Eastern Football League’s Division 1.
As he does most Thursday nights during the footy season, Ron Eade is watching from the sidelines. The 81-year-old is known to all within the club by his boyhood nickname ‘‘Geeza’’, and has been a fixture around the place for more than 60 years. ‘‘I’m regarded as the oldest inhabitant in the club. There really aren’t many of my era around the club nowadays,’’ Eade says.

Growing up in Blackburn during World War II, Eade was one of six brothers who all played football for the Burners. He pulled on his boots for the club in 1944. ‘‘I was 15 years old when I played my first game for them. I lived in Blackburn, so the natural thing in those days was to play your football and your cricket in your own suburb,’’ he says.

http://www.melbourneweeklyeastern.c...football-league-still-kicking-on/2117494.aspx
 
Partnership grows in the east


THE Eastern Football League is preparing to celebrate its 50th year of operation and has marked the occasion by establishing a ‘‘community partnership’’ with the Hawthorn Football Club aimed at ensuring the league’s future development.
The partnership will see Hawthorn providing players to support junior events – including clinics, the lightning premiership and the AFL’s Thanks Ump round – as well as sharing its training facilities with the EFL’s development squads. The move was seen as common sense by both the EFL and the Hawks, who have shared common ground since the AFL club’s move to Waverley Park.
Hawthorn’s connections with the EFL had already been building through the Box Hill Hawks VFL program, which has provided an AFL pathway for EFL players including Sam Mitchell and, more recently, Cam Pedersen.
Eastern Football League CEO Rob Sharpe said the partnership would have a number of positive outcomes.
‘‘To have an AFL club involved means we can do more for the game throughout the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, to help get more kids involved,’’ he said.
‘‘The idea of a more-consolidated effort in the development of football in the eastern suburbs will have real benefits for the game.
‘‘I think it’s a great way for Hawthorn to demonstrate its interest in further-developing the game.
‘‘They have their own ambitions, in terms of fan development, and this is a good way for the people in their club to be involved at a local level.’’
The Hawks will also assist the EFL with the production of a DVD to further the league’s road safety program.
The partnership was announced at the league’s season launch, which was attended by more than 300 club representatives and league associates.
Hawthorn’s general manager of consumer services and community, Greg Cook, said there was an ‘‘obvious synergy’’ between the club and the league.
‘‘It’s about delivering good community outcomes and opportunities,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ve got the common denominator of being in the region. Hawthorn’s the only AFL club east of Punt Road. The club engaging itself with a league the size of the EFL, that’s been around 50 years, gives our brand a good fit.
‘‘We’d like to think we may help, through the talent identification, to help improve football pathways.
‘‘If we can assist the EFL be a healthier competition, then Hawthorn will be a better club.
‘‘I would say this partnership has tremendous direction and will prosper over time. It will be mutually beneficial.

http://leader.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
 

Log in to remove this ad.

With apologies to Australian 70’s sensation Skyhooks, current NZ captain Andrew Crighton has made his senior debut for the Balwyn Tigers in Division One of the very strong Melbourne metropolitan league, the Eastern Football League.

Andrew Crighton, 24, landed with the Tigers for pre-season after coming across the Tasman to improve his footy. He moved to Australia in November with the intent of lifting his game, lobbed at Balwyn Park for the first pre-season session and hasn't looked back. Crighton had achieved almost everything he could hope to in New Zealand.

Six years in the national team, the New Zealand Hawks, which he has captained since 2010, combined with a premiership in 2008 for home club North Shore in the Auckland league (http://www.aafl.co.nz) left little more to achieve.

http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20120605145045638
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top