The Dunneworthy Touch Club is one of the oldest continuous social touch football teams in Victoria. The team itself was formed in late 2000 by Peter Shaw and is now competing in its 11th consecutive season. The team is named after “Dunneworthy” near Ararat a sheep and cattle property owned by the Shaw family

Playing alternatively at Royal Park in the Summer and Albert Park in the Winter it has been reasonably successful winning two Albert Park B Grade premierships and being runners-up at Royal Park once. The team has been remarkably consistent throughout the period only missing the finals on two occasions.

During the 11 season there have been many standout players that have played for Dunneworthy. Peter Shaw has only missed 6 games throughout that period but there have been many other stalwarts including Daniel Cusack, Maya Jelbart, and Andrew Edbrooke.

Dunneworthy 2008 premiers

Winter 2008 was the 16th season for the Dunneworthy touch team. Since the 2003 Dunneworthy has known plenty of success. Playing finals in the top grade every season but two but not cracking it for success in the big one.

After a disappointing Summer beset by injuries to key players. 2008 brought a few new faces and the hope that this might finally be the year we would win another premiership. After being unsure of the skill level of the new recruits I asked for us not be be put in the top grade. After smashing opponents in the firts thfour games it quickly became obvious we were playing the wrong grade. I asked for us to be put up, we were (and we kept the points).

From there our regular season form was mixed scoring some great wins against the lower and middle teams but losing narrowly through poor defence against fellow finals teams. Our porr defence was the cause of several team lectures from your truly emphasising defence. However due to some refereeing bonus points we finished top.

In the semi after a dour first half the flood gates openned in the scond and we ran away with it. This put us into the Grand Final against the Tornadoes. Yep a team that trains, and one that beat us narrowly earlier in the season.

In the grand final we started on fire scoring the frist three tries however Tornadoes fought back (or maybe we relaxed) and it was all square at the break. In the half time speech I said to the team we just have control field position, complete our sets of 6, and work hard in defence. I was confdent we’d score enough itn the seond we just had to stop them scoring.

As “Hannibal” Smith : says I love it when a plan comes together. After an enormous amount of hard work and desparate defence in the second half against a team with plenty of subs we got the win 6-4.

Link to APT summary

Post game drink

Dunneworthy made their second season decider in succession but yet again have come up second, losing 5-3 to Touche in the 2006 Albert Park C Grade Grand Final.

My cousin took a few shots of the night, although it would appear they are mostly of him and his mates, they can be viewed here:

Dunneworthy looking to go one better this year went ahead early with a try to Simon Lewis of a beautiful Dan Cusack pass. However Scored hit back and when Dan Cusack was binned for 10 minutes for a fowl he did not committ scored skipped away to a 3 try lead at half time.

Scored extended their domination in the second half running away with the match 7-2. Giving them back to back victories and leaving Dunneworthy searching for an elusive first Royal Park title!

A gallery some of the action on the night can be viewed here:http://shawfactor.com/2005/12/21/dunneworthy-touch-21122005/

The team was sitting pretty half way through the season with 7 straight wins.However the second half was not so good a few losses including a spanking by Lone Rangers.But we won the semi final and went straight into the final, a rematch against Lone Rangers.

At half time we trailed 4-3 but were not panicking. The second half was a shootout as defense seemed to go out the window. But being down 8-7 with less than 2 minutes left it was looking like we would fall short. Thankfully we got it back to even terms as Pete Shaw dived across to even it up.

From the ensuing kick-off Lone rangers attacked our line.In desperation they threw a wild pass that Wayne intercepted running the length of the field leaving his cap behind and scoring on full time.Pity about the defense on the day but if you can score 9 tries you deserve to be champs.

A Gallery of team shots and the post match celebration can be found by clicking here:
http://shawfactor.com/2001/09/10/dunneworthy-2001-gf-gallery/

After some close wins in the grading matches we were drawn in B Grade where some pundits claimed “as touch players we play rugby well” and will “struggle to cut it”. Read it and weep Kelly-Ann!Despite this we won our first 6 games over some sides with some very stupid names.We then drew with Superfreaks before our team undermanned by a breakdown on the Westgate Bridge suffered our first loss to the Cool Cucumbers 6-5.In what was also the game of the now infamous “tackle”.Can I just say now it was an attempted intercept and I feel two weeks was unduly harsh. It was time to step and and we did going on a winning sequence leading us to the grand final.

Its fair to say everyone played their best game in the big one. Brigid stepped into the breach for Debs and despite the Cool Cucumbers bombing some tries our defence was excellent and our attack as always great. But close to full time the score was 6-4 with the Cool Cucumbers attacking our line and potentially only one score from tieing it (girl tries were double points). But Andrew Davis intercepted and managed to waste at least a minute standing in the in goal, he touchdowned as the hooter went and the crowd (of about twenty0 went wild.Deserved winners 7-4.

Throughout the season all the girls improved incredibly, especially Shelley (more a return to form), Maya, and Becs. Chris and Ivan’s experience was invaluable, and Cusack as usual you are a star. Alex was also a very deserved winner of the Best and Fairest and also now top try scorer for the Auckland and Melbourne rugby leagues as well as Wednesday Mixed B touch.

A gallery of photos taken on the day and in the celebration afterwards can be viewed here:

http://shawfactor.com/2001/09/10/dunneworthy-2001-gf-gallery/