This newsletter finds us two weeks into the 2023 GFNL season. Our senior men’s and under 18 boys squads commenced on April 15, with senior women and junior sides starting on April 22/23.
Congratulations to Cailah McPhail-Jans and Taiya Morrow on their appointments as co-captains of the senior women’s side for 2023.
Our senior men’s side has continued to show improvement, providing solid competition in Round 1 against Leopold, who played in last year’s GFNL grand final. Lara’s young side showed plenty of character in a game played in relentlessly wet conditions, taking the lead briefly in the third quarter before Leopold pulled away later in the game to win by around 5 goals. Our reserves and under 18s also played on the day, battling hard but going down to strong opponents.
Last Sunday saw the club run our annual ‘Spirit of ANZAC’ event. Run in conjunction with Lara RSL and hosting Grovedale FNC, we commemorated our service men and women with our traditional ‘Walk from the Gates’ and our formal ceremony prior to the main game. Thanks to Marcus McEwen and the RSL representatives for their assistance on the day, as well as Grovedale FNC for their participation, and all our volunteers for their tireless efforts to keep everything running smoothly. Thanks also to the Lara community, who turned out in huge numbers on the day.
In a day of wall-to-wall football over 11 hours, we saw 5 games played on Bisinella Oval with others occuring on Oval 2. We enjoyed the opportunity to feature our senior women and men on the same program. The senior women had a great win over Thomson while our senior men played in the twilight match later in the day, going down to Grovedale.
This week saw Tom Hawkins and Darcy Parish visit the club to promote the AFL Country Match. Media and journalists were on hand to listen to Tom and Darcy promote the round, as well as see them meet and greet some of our junior footballers and sign autographs. Lara’s juniors will also provide a guard of honour at Sunday’s match as the teams run out.
You may have noticed the SecMedic medical van at our senior matches. This is part of a new sponsorship deal between SecMedic and Lara FC, and sees us benefit by having qualified medical staff attend one day’s footy each round. On Sunday, we had a nurse, paramedic and doctor on site. Combined with our training and physio staff, the club can be justifiably proud and excited with the size, capability and quality of our medical support for our teams.
Remember you can order LFNC apparel online at any time. View the range and place your orders using the online shop here: https://promote-it.com.au/larafc/
Go Cats!
