At the annual Life Members and Hall Of Fame Luncheon the club inducted two new Life Members, Jamie Sands and Jo Rutherford who have both served the club well for nearly 20 years. Four time senior Best & Fairest Winner, Shane Williams, was inducted into the Monbulk FNC Hall of Fame. Keep an eye out our seperate article celebrating these wonderful people!

FOOTBALL

Seniors
Monbulk had their first home game in more than a month when they faced local rivals Gembrook-Cockatoo. The Hawks were out to reclaim the Ramage Family Trophy, for which these two clubs have been competing since 1995. The Brookers won their encounter with Monbulk in Round 2 by 4 points. The Hawks had the aid of a strong wind to the top goals in the first quarter and made full use of it to lead by 41 points at the first change. Monbulk was then able to get the game on their terms when Gembrook had the advantage of the conditions, restricting the visitors to just a single point. Conditions eased in the second half and the match became much more even however the Hawks were still able to gradually extend the final margin out to 68 points.

Monbulk 19.13.127 def Gembrook-Cockatoo 9.5.59
Best: Lachlan Sheppard, Lochlan Beecroft, Ziggy Hatherley, Josh Wentworth, Glenn Strachan, Max Thornton
Goals: Lochlan Beecroft 4, Ziggy Hatherley 4, Brodie Emmett 2, Harry Fleming 2, William Mutschler 2, Mackay Bateson 1, Josh Wentworth 1, Glenn Strachan 1, Lewis Oliver 1, Thomas Taylor 1

Reserves
Gembrook put up a spirited performance against the Hawks in the Reserves but an early break of three goals established by Monbulk was to prove a useful barrier for the remainder of the match. Monbulk remain in fifth spot as they look to cement a finals berth.

Monbulk 10.10.70 def Gembrook-Cockatoo 6.4.40
Best: Cameron Griffiths, Josh Rak, Lachlan Hancock-Wolfe, Toby Versteegen, Justin Woodcock, Brandon Shambrooke
Goals: Michael Langworthy 4, Jayden Mauchline 3, Lachlan Smith 1, Nick Taylor 1, Nick Selleck 1

Women
With the Under 19s having a bye this week, the women’s team were able to open proceedings at 10am rather than play in their usual twilight spot after the seniors. In an unusual twist to recent occurrences, Monbulk were the team to have a full complement of 22 players compared to Pakenham’s 17 and the game was played at 14 a side. Unfortunately Monbulk were caught out ball watching and playing reactionary football in the first half and conceded a 38 point deficit. This was rectified in the second half as the girls attacked the contest much harder and it was 2 goals to one in favour of the Lions for that period.

Monbulk 1.2.8 def by Pakenham 7.10.52
Best: Kathryn Gow, Shaye McLean, Maddison Dodd, Indy Bakker, Madeline Caarels, Josie Ford
Goals: Kathryn Gow 1

NETBALL
A Grade
Monbulk faced the winless Gembrook side in A Grade to try and stay in touch with the top five. Star goal shooter Peri Reid was unavailable although this was offset by the return of defender Paige Whitworth. The Hawks put up a dominant performance from start to finish to run out 39 goal winners. They are sixth on the ladder and sit two games behind Olinda and two games ahead of Berwick, Upwey-Tecoma and Pakenham.

Monbulk 62 def Gembrook-Cockatoo 23
Best: Nicole Macdowell, Sophie Stubbs, Paige Whitworth
Goals: Nicole Macdowell 32, Sophie Stubbs 30

B Grade
The Monbulk B Grade team are similarly situated to A Grade, sitting in sixth spot on the ladder and also having a win while scoring 62 goals. Apart from the second quarter, which was tied, the Hawks were in control of proceedings for the rest of the match and won comfortably by 25 goals in the end.

Monbulk 62 def Gembrook-Cockatoo 37
Best: Lisa Boyle, Paige Rondinella, Siobhan Munday
Goals: Paige Rondinella 50, Chloe Schmidtke 12

C Grade
The C Grade match was brought forward and played as the first match for the day. This was to allow the team, and in particular their goal shooter, Jamie Sands, to attend the Life Members and Hall Of Fame Luncheon as she was to receive a Life Membership for her long service to the club. The changed time didn’t affect the Hawks as they delivered their third win of the season.

Monbulk 37 def Gembrook-Cockatoo 22
Best: Tara Donald, Jamie Sands, Cody Sharp
Goals: Jamie Sands 26, Sammi Kelly 9, Laura Del Biondo 2

D Grade
Unfortunately the Hawks were not able to make it a straight sweep on the court as the D Grade team played a valiant game but too often lost possession in their travels towards goal.

Monbulk 15 def by Gembrook-Cockatoo 37
Best: Brooke O’Loughlin, Jessica Steele, Bronte Passingham
Goals: Eireann Lawson 10, Hannah Dickason 5