Congratulations to Matt Wood on winning his 3rd Warrandyte Best & Fairest.  Woody also polled well in the league B&F coming 4th. A fantastic effort considering the team's performance.

Club Warrandyte was sold out for the Vote Count and Presentation Night. It was a fantastic night to end a disappointing season. An overwhelming resolve was to return to Division 3 in 2007. Thanks to all volunteers and officials who have contributed their time and efforts to running the club in season 2005.

Warrandyte defeated Doncaster on Sunday, August 28th to win the YVJFL Under 17 premiership. Kicking against a strong breeze in the first quarter, the Bloods held Doncaster well before opening a handy lead going into the main break. Doncaster, undefeated all season, fought hard in the third term but could not wrestle back the lead from a discpline Warrandyte unit. A couple of goals early in the last quarter put the result beyond doubt. Congratulations, a fantastic team performance.

Green in Red & White for 2006 - August 5, 2005

Peter Green has been reappointed as Senior coach for season 2006. Peter has fitted in extremely well at the Bloods and is respected by players and supporters alike. The committee have been well satisfied with Peter's approach and positivity in taking the young playing group forward. Whilst our goals this season were not achieved, the club recognises that Peter has the tools necessary to develop the playing list for future success.

Bloods Setup Relegation Showdown - August 10, 2005

From the EFL Website

Coach Peter Green was wrapped with the sides win, and said they were confident going into the clash. "We matched up on them very well last time, and we were a bit unlucky to lose to them at Bayswater, so we thought we had a really good opportunity with the matchups, and that is the way it played out for us."

After not scoring in the third term, the bloods had a big task ahead of them, but a five goal to one behind final term saw Warrandyte pull off a final quarter comeback. Green said his three quarter time address was simple. "It was pretty simple really, just to keep attacking the ball, and to have the intensity to win the ball, and kick it in long to our forwards to have them one out. There was no rocket science behind it, and that was the way we had been playing all day, and if we kept on winning the ball, and getting it down to the forwards, then we would have every opportunity to win the game."

Green even had the chance in the final term to seal the match off his own boot. "All the damage was done in a ten minute period in the last quarter where we piled on the goals, and that set up the win for us. I had a chance to seal the game, and was tackled as I kicked it. It looked like it was going out of bounds on the full, but it bounced inside, took a left break, and we got a point. Bayswater took it down and Williams had a shot at goal and missed which would have levelled the scores. And that is the way it finished."

Forward Mick Morello kicked four goals for the winners, a good return after being down on form recently. "Mick has been down on confidence over the last month, and we have been playing him out at centre half forward, just to free him up from getting double teamed each week. Yesterday I really wanted him to work on his second efforts, which he did with a few smothers and tackles, so it was fantastic. When we had the breeze in the final quarter, we were able to put him one out in the goal square and he stood up."

What ever the result this Saturday, one thing that is certain is that Peter Green will lead them in 2006. "That was finalised a week ago. We just thought we needed some stability, moving forward, so the players had some direction for next year, so we got that finalised with the committee, and I am looking forward to it. Especially after yesterday (vs Bayswater) I think it is a real turning point for the club," Green said.

On Saturday August 6th Warrandyte Football Club paid tribute to three of our favourite sons John O'Brien, Kimberely O'Connor and Dale Vitiritti. Over three decades thousands of people have watched, played with and admired the men wearing numbers 37, 33 and 22. Numbers synonymous with Warrandyte Football Club.
For their career statistics go to the 'Legends' page.

Warrandyte v Parkdale - Girls Charity Match - 23rd July 2005

Thanks to everyone who supported our charity match, especially Parkdale. We were able to raise in excess of $1000 for the Nth Warrandyte CFA and Anti-Cancer Council.

WFC Joins New Program - June 22nd 2005  

Sports clubs such as ours play a significant role in the community and therefore have a responsibility to our members and their families. In recognition of this, the Warrandyte Football Club has elected to participate in the Good Sports program.

The program is run in Victoria by the Australian Drug Foundation in conjunction with VicHealth, the Traffic Accident Commission (TAC) and the Alcohol Education Rehabilitation Foundation. The program has been designed to assist clubs with the responsible management of alcohol and is the only nationwide program of its kind.

As a community based club we believe involvement in this program is a way for our club to promote a healthy and welcoming club culture whilst working to consistently meet our duty of care obligations in regards to alcohol consumption.

To become Good Sports Level One accredited we will address a number of criteria including having Responsible Service Alcohol trained bar staff.

For more information about Good Sports contact:
Phil Treeby (Mobile) 0439 764 142.

Bloods Back In Business - June 2005

By Lee Tindale

Warrandyte Football Club kept their EFL Third Division tenure alive with a desperate, ice-breaking seven-point win over Heathmont at home on June 4.
The battle of the cellar dwellers was virtually a grand final for the Bloods. Lose and they virtually condemned themselves to the wooden spoon and the club's first-ever trip to Division 4. Win and they lived to fight other days, level on points with Heathmont, last year's tearaway Fourth Division premiers, at the season's halfway mark.
Heathmont had broken through for the first win of their season six days earlier with a shock 49-point thrashing of South Croydon.
Warrandyte's maiden win of 2000 was achieved despite the loss of three key players to injury before half-time.
Adam Kearney, who had kicked three first-quarter goals, and exciting youngster Tom Naughtin went off late in the first term with a hamstring and a compound finger fracture respectively and coach Peter Green limped off midway through the second quarter with a calf injury which threatens to sideline him for up to six weeks.
It left the Bloods without an interchange bench at all -- although Green and Kearney limped back on to the field to make up the numbers late in a frantic final quarter -- and, on the face of it, very little hope. That they overcame it all was a tribute to the good old-fashioned G and D of a very young team still learning the senior football business.
"The boys realised the importance of this game from a possible relegation viewpoint and when we lost three players in the first half they knew they had their backs to the wall," Green said later,
"I told them at half-time that the game would be won by the team who wanted the ball more. That turned out to be us."
WFC president Phil Treeby applauded the performance of a "very young team coming to maturity". He said the win had opened the path to a much-improved second half of the season.
In perfect football conditions, Warrandyte opened up against Heathmont looking nothing like potential wooden spooners. In their best first quarter of the season, they kicked 5.1 to the visitors' 1.1.
Kearney, who has been great value since arriving from Lalor in the Diamond Valley league this season, set success-starved local supporters alight with two goals in the first six minutes, the first from a great grab, the second a clever snap.
Matt Treeby to Clint Wheatley -- another classy arrival from Lalor -- four minutes later produced out third goal and when Sean Donovan, a recent arrival from Montrose, found Andrew Gordon with a long handpass it was 4.1 to 0.1 and Heathmont were looking very ordinary.
Fast-learning rookie ruckman Anthony Richardson compounded their problems when he tapped superbly to Aiden Davey, who sent a footpass to Kearney for his third goal and Warrandyte's fifth.
How good was this? Not so good when Heathmont snapped their first goal with the quarter 28 minutes old, but a 24-point lead at the first change was very, very tasty.
If the opening stanza belonged to Warrandyte, however, the second was very much Heathmont's.
It was a six-goals-to-one quarter, the Bloods, who had so dominated proceedings in the first, now struggling to cross the centre. Heathmont suddenly found their feet and their form and within 20 minutes had hit the front with four unanswered goals.
Full-forward Lee Hartman had begun to expose glaring deficiencies in the Warrandyte defence and his teammates had lifted a notch or three as well, making space and finding targets.
A behind at 21 minutes was out first score of the quarter, but full-forward Michael Morello restored our lead five minutes on when he deftly intercepted a Z-grade kick-out and split the middle.
Heathmont struck back from a free and accompanying penalty and loose Warrandyte defence sent them into the interval with an eight-point advantage, 7.4 (46) to 6.2 (38).
Could the injury-riddled Bloods turn it around from here? That seemed unlikely when Heathmont goaled within a minute of the resumption, but Wheatley grabbed that one back from the boundary and when Morello marked and goaled with just four minutes elapsed we were right back in this ball game.
Ben Dart, a newcomer from Foster and a very likely lad, put us back in front with half the quarter gone and we might have skipped away to a handy lead if the kicking boots had been on up forward.
Still, Craig Dick made full use of a free kick at 22 minutes to send us 13 points clear, an advantage partly squandered by poor defence with the clock ticking down.
Warrandyte led by six points -- 10.8 (68) to 9.8 (62) -- at the last change and coach Green told his troops that Heathmont were ready to crack. It looked a little that way, too, when the Bloods kicked the first two goals -- courtesy of John Potter and Dart -- in six minutes when hostilities resumed. Unfortunately, Heathmont got the next two and the three-quarter-time status quo was restored.
It set the scene for a gripping finish, an arm wrestle that was to run for 35 minutes as Warrandyte defended a slender and fluctuating lead.
Morello kicked us 12 points clear with 13 minutes gone and nine minutes of last-man-standing football were to slip by before the next score of any description, a potentially match-winning behind to the Bloods.
Morello struck again at 24 minutes with what surely would be the clincher, his fourth goal giving us a 19-point lead. But Heathmont were not quite done yet. They goaled at 27 minutes and again as a result of a dubious free kick with just second on the clock.
In the meantime a behind to Morello after a sensational mark had put the game beyond the visitors' reach.
And no, the Bloods hadn't forgotten the words of the club song.
Warrandyte's goalkickers were Morello 4, Kearney 3, Wheatley 2, Dart 2, Gordon, Dick and Potter. Their best were Ricky Bourke, Donovan, Grant McAdam, Rick Templeton, Matt Wood and Dart.

Describe to any football talent scout a young bloke who stands 197 centimetres, weighs in at 96 kilograms, can leap a vertical metre from one step and cover 400 metres in 52 seconds on the training track and that talent scout will unashamedly salivate. The one drawback is that this young bloke has never played footy -- but that hasn't tempered the excitement Queenslander Anthony Richardson, 22, has generated since he arrived a couple of months ago to try out with Warrandyte Football Club. Basketball has always been Richardson's game and he's very, very good at it. He is also a champion mountain bike rider, ranked in the top 10-15 in Australia in his field.
So what brought him to the Bloods? A chance meeting at Ivanhoe Cycles, where he works as a mechanic, with Warrandyte's Graham Elliott, father of local basketballers/footballers Brian and Trevor and manager of Hawthorn Magic in the VBL Premier League. The Elliott twins were playing for Hawthorn Magic and Warrandyte High School physical education teacher Steve Moresi just happened to be coaching there. One thing led to another. Moresi has taught PE for 20 years and describes Richard-son as "a freak, the best athlete I've ever seen". "He is also an awesome young guy," he said.
Warrandyte senior football coach Peter Green is also mightily impressed with Richardson and his potential. "I suppose 22 is a bit long in the tooth to be starting a football career at top level," Green said, "but if Anthony had been picked up at, say, 16 he'd be playing AFL today." Moresi is similarly enthused by Richardson's basketball talents. "He was brilliant at Hawthorn Magic," he said. "He's like a (NBL star) Sam McKinnon … similar build and athleticism. "If he'd been picked up when he was younger he'd be playing NBL."
Richardson has been undergoing plenty of one-on-one training with former Warrandyte football notables -- including champion ruckman Kimberly O'Connor -- to prepare him for competitive football and expect to see him in action when the Bloods begin their 2005 EFL Third Division campaign at home to South Croydon on April 9. "There's every chance he'll play in the opening game," said Green. "His development has been way and above my highest expectations. "It is a steep learning curve for him -- but you only have to show him anything the once. "Learning to read the play with probably be his toughest challenge, but that will come only with experience."
On another positive note, the Bloods have recruited promising types in Clint and Aaron Wheatley and Adam Kearney from Diamond Valley club Lalor and will be looking to intensify their youth development policy with graduates from last season's Under-18s.
Coach Green is happy with the pre-season so far. "We have a core group of players who have responded very well to hard training and their fitness has improved," he said. "The players understand the game plan we have adopted for this season to make us very competitive and they have accepted it. "Of course, we won't really know how we're going until we're into the season."

There are many positives having a senior squad with an average age of 21 years, of which over 40 players are under the age of 24. ‘Potential’, ‘enthusiasm’, ‘young girlfriends’, are all words that are bandied about and all adjectives that the club hopes come to fruition.

Travel is something that most of us enjoy and usually comes at a very opportune time for many young adults. This is certainly the case at Warrandyte in 2005. No fewer than eleven players from 2004 will be setting sail overseas or around Australia on short and long stay holidays.

Chris Chapman is currently trekking through South America making full use of his fluent Spanish tongue. He will then join Ben Reid in Boliva before they head to London where Mark Spilio, Aaron Jenkins, Glen Carle and Nathan Gardner can be found. Jimmy Riley also has plans to discover London and Europe later this year. Perhaps when they all meet in London they can form our International Rules side – the London Bloods!

Craig Dick has recently returned from five months travelling the world including Egypt, Asia and Europe. As he returned Stewart Rough left for Perth, Nathan Ireland for Queensland and Tommy Urbano has ventured to Italy find his roots.

Whilst we wish all of the boys a fantastic time abroad and know the experience will be memorable, there is no place like home. Fortunately blood is thicker than water and we look forward to seeing them run around the hallowed Warrandyte turf in the near future.