The Dunneworthy Touch Club is one of the oldest continuous social touch football teams in Victoria. I formed the team late 2000 and competed for 23 consecutive season. The team is named after “Dunneworthy” near Ararat a sheep and cattle property owned by my family
Playing at Albert Park, Royal Park, and kensington the team has has been consistent throughout the period only missing the finals on two occasions and winning 7 premierships at A and B grade level. After finally winning the Royal Park A grade title in its 4th grand final it has the 2013 Winter season off but is back for 2013-14 Summer season.
During the 11 season there have been many standout players that have played for Dunneworthy including Daniel Cusack, Maya Jelbart, Megan Levy, and Andrew Edbrooke.
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.
At 6 PM on the third of June at the Melrose Institue, Peter Shaw had a BBQ 30 years in the making. Many friends and team mates where there including most of the Dunneworthy team.
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:
The 2006 Grand Final at Royal Park was an eagerly awaited contest by both teams. Scored, looking for back to back premiership success, had overcome Phantoms in the semi final. Whilst the perrenial semi-finalist Dunneworthy had overcome Oscar in a thrilling drop off.
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!
On the 21st of December Dunneworthy had its last games for 2005 against old rivals Lone Rangers. Dunneworthy continued its recent run of good form chalking up a 10-3 win. Including a haul of 6 by Peter Shaw who promises he will “definitely share the ball around more in the future”.
After recruiting N.Z. underage player Wayne Nicora and having a strong showing over summer at Royal Park a lot was expected of the 2003 winter team.And whilst the team looked a bit shaky at times it ultimately won the premiership in a thriller.
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.
At the beginnging of the 2001 Winter season it was a toss up whether touch over winter was a goer. Albert Park was a At the beginnging of the 2001 Winter season it was a toss up whether touch over winter was a goer. Albert Park was a long way from North Carlton and it get’s cold at 9.00 PM in the middle of Winter.But we decided to go for it. As close to half the Summer team no longer lived in Melbourne we needed some new recruits.Christine Williams recruited Alex Farani and I solidified the Kiwi connection by getting Andrew and Ursula Davis onboard.
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:
