Sean Horsburgh to hit 300 for Towners

Sean Horsburgh is Violet Town through and through.

No-one in the history of our club has coached the club’s senior team for more years.

Sean coached the senior team for six consecutive years.

He is a best and fairest winner (2006) and Burden trophy winner (2005 and 2009).

Sean started his career in the fourths at a single-digit age, progressing through the thirds to senior ranks making his senior debut in 2001.

Incredibly this is his 21st senior year.

Sean’s proudest moment would be as a premiership player in 2012.

It was the club's first flag at senior level since 1990.

He has also tasted defeat on the last day in 2003 (vs Yea) and 2018 (vs Nagambie).

This Saturday (our next home game) Sean will become only the third player in our rich 126-year history to reach the 300 senior game milestone.

Uncannily talented on both sides of his body and able to play almost every position, this highly popular and great servant of our club will always be revered.

Part of the reason this great country town still has football and netball is Sean Horsburgh.

The club urges all the community, past players and coaches and supporters to gather at our home ground to honour one of our true champions and afterwards a function in his honour as we salute one of our great stalwarts.

Take a bow Sean, well played!

First-class effort despite loss

An undermanned Violet Town took on red-hot Merrigum on their home ground.

With eight players out through injuries, the lads from the seconds put their hand up to help, stood up and gave there all.

Despite the loss, plenty of positives came out.

The back six were superb and late in the third quarter had helped to reduce the margin to just 16 points.

Ben Cosgriff was superb, leading like a general, Nathan Abley in his new role was good, as was Kunkel, Jennings and Joel Price.

Price was incidentally superb over four quarters and vied with Cosgriff and Mellington, who played mainly on ball for best-on-field honours.

The midfield, led by Matt McCarty, with Baldwin and Nick Brazil, were superb, and because of numbers played the whole game out with no rest.

Harry Sleigh was amazing, thrown into the ruck. No changes against two ruckman was brilliant.

Result disappointing, but effort first class

Violet Town: 8.9.57

Merrigum: 17.6.108

Best: B.Cosgriff, J.Price, J.Mellington, L.Baldwin, NW Abley, M.McCarty, N.Brazil

Goals: M.McCarty 3, N.Brazil, J.Mellington, B.Cosgriff, J.Price L.Baldwin 1 each

2nd XVIII

A 53-point loss will not damper Eddie Kozole's boys.

Having the same amount of shots on goal at half-time indicated this game could go either way, but the bulldogs defence stood talk holding the Towners goalless in the second half while creating four of their own to run out comfortable victors

The three Ds, Downer, Dowell and Domoterm were at their very best while Unger and Wright tried hard up forward.

Violet Town: 2.7.19

Merrigum: 10.12.72

Best: R.Downie, R.Dowell, BDomotor, L. Wrght, L. Unger, F.McFarlane

Goals: L.Wright, L.Unger 1 each

Under-12

The kids were back at again this week, which is great to have them play four games in a row, and you could tell with how they went right from the start.

Again there was great emphasis on team play and all the kids take this team rule very seriously.

There were numerous plays of using their teammates instead of just running and kicking.

Improvement from all the players is really there to see now.

From Logan running three quarters in the midfield, to Maddi taking high marks and kicking goals.

You could see the crowd watching thought they were seeing the Geelong Cats from the night before playing.

All the kids should be super proud again of how they played and how much they keep on improving.

So back on the track this week to hone their skills and be ready for the next challenge.

Netball

A-grade

Both sides wanted to start off strong as this was a must-win for both sides.

Merrigum put pressure on Violet Town all the way down the court, which allowed them to cause the Towners to make some errors, converting them into goals.

Violet Town worked hard in defence also, creating turnovers, but just weren’t able to convert like Merrigum could.

In the second quarter Merrigum continued to shoot accurately, making sure if there were any turnovers or loose balls they were converting them into goals.

Violet Town continued to work hard in defence, confusing the space and coming up with many tips and deflections.

With some positional changes at half-time, Violet Town come out fighting with some great defensive pressure and slowed the ball down in attack find a free teammate.

In the last quarter the game freed up and Violet Town was able to have some great passages of play, finding the shooters, who shot well all game.

Merrigum was too strong for Violet Town. It just wasn’t Violet Town’s day.

Final scores VT 23 def by Merrigum 57.

Best-on court: Kolby Wild. Second-best: Prue Holmes.

B-grade

Violet Town started well with Tilly and Kellie working well in the goal circle and Kat strong down in the defensive circle, working well with Lauren.

With a lot of back an forth up and down the court the Merrigum was able to get on top and settle first, making the most of their opportunities with the scores at quarter time Violet Town five to Merrigum 11.

Violet Town brought on some fresh legs in the second quarter with Sara and Tegan being a great addition, putting lots of pressure on and defensive working well.

Lauren and Kat continue to communicate well with each other, being able to put on the pressure in the Merrigum shooting circle, confusing the space free and getting some great rebounds.

Till and Kellie down the other end of the court also continued on from the first quarter, creating some great space for the mid-court to feed the ball into them.

Half-time scores Violet Town nine to Merrigum 23.

In the third quarter Merrigum came out strong and started to play a bit faster game, which the Violet Town girls could not keep up with, and they started to tire.

Three-quarter time scores Violet Town 12 to Merrigum 39.

In the final quarter Violet Town worked hard, with some great leads from Tegan to get the ball into Tilly who was shooting well and finding some space.

The mid-court worked hard to keep the defensive pressure on Merrigum and Kat continued to work hard, defending well all game.

Final scores Violet Town 15 def by Merrigum 57.

Best-on court: Tilly Ellis. Second-best: Meg Reed.

C-grade

Violet Town started off the game with some really good defence from Brianna and Sara in the defensive goal circle, picking up some great rebounds and intercepts.

With some positional changes made at quarter time, Ellie was moved into goals and she was able to deliver with some fantastic shooting.

Everyone continued to fight hard, with some great defensive pressure all the way down the court.

The mid-court was working hard to get the ball down to the attacking end.

A well-fought out game with some great passages of play, but unfortunately Merrigum was too strong.

Final scores Violet Town 20 def by Merrigum 59.

Best-on court: Tegan North. Second-best: Ellie Triffitt.

Under-15

In warm conditions and coming off the bye last weekend the Violet Town girls got off to a slow start, with some unforced errors.

The Merrigum team was able to top get on to earlier in the game.

After the quarter break the Violet Town girls regrouped and fought back hard, reducing the amount of turnovers and producing some fantastic patches of play.

Merrigum after half-time brought on some fresh legs and that meant they were about to come out strong; really putting the pressure on the Violet Town team, to again force Towners to throw the ball away.

At three-quarter time the Violet Town girls swapped positions back to their starting line-up to finish out the game strong and that they did.

The Violet Town team fought hard and forced Merrigum into some unforced errors and then Violet Town were able to convert into goals.

Well-fought out match, but unfortunately Merrigum was just too good.

Final Scores Violet Town 17 def by Merrigum 48.

Best-on court: Belle Young. Most determined: Tash Reid.

More from Ensign Sport:

If you would like to send a letter to the editor on this, or any subject, click this link