In 2001, the Henley Men’s league team didn’t win a game, our coach quit halfway through, and our reserves team made finals getting knocked out in the first round. Both Norwood’s League and Reserve Men’s teams made it straight through to the grand final. 7 years later, it all feels a bit familiar…
Norwood was my first club, so i’m always a bit interested in how they’re going. I’ve lived and worked in the area since i was 9 and even barrack for the redlegs. Norwood hasn’t historically been a “big” club, but it’s always had some real quality players who seem to always stay and just know how to win. It never seems to affect them much when they lose some of their best players to the national team or overseas comps and they always manage to make finals. Both their men’s teams made it through to the grand final last week, and i can’t help but think about when this happened 7 years ago.
Back Then…
Norwood had one of the best men’s league teams i could remember. Even without Adam Maskell who was at the AIS, they had an awesome triumvirate of outside hitters in Jason Sidoryn, Ben “Chewie” Sawon and a 16-year-old Travis Moran. They also had the two best setters in the comp in Andy Hunter and Jonathon Hague. It was truly an embarrassment of riches seeing Hague sit on the bench. They didn’t drop a game all season until the grand final, going down in 4 to USC Lion.
Lion had limped into the finals and had to play the 3rd v 4th elimination game against Austral. They were 2 sets down and into the 3rd when Darren Snell roofed Mike Reu. Snell colourfully reminded Mike of what had just occurred and the consequence was Mike turning it on to help Lion win it in 5. They went on to beat South the following week then upset Norwood in the grand final to win their 8th premiership in a row (i’m glad they lost the following year to Lofty cos it was starting to get a bit boring). A friend of mine once suggested that Norwood had Darren Snell to thank for losing the grand final. For had he not fired up Mike Reu, things may have turned out different.
Maybe it was Lion’s day. maybe it had to do with Chewie playing in Norwood’s reserve men’s 5-set grand final loss to South earlier in the day. In any case, i’m sure Norwood would rather forget about it. After that, Andy went to Europe and Trav went to the AIS. Although they still made finals every year, they didn’t have quite as strong a team. until now.
Second time round
Norwood became a very different club this year with Trav taking over as president. Their juniors programme expanded in a big way. Before they may have had maybe only 1 or 2 teams…. and in some years none at all making them technically ineligible to compete in state league. A stroke of inspired genius brough Bea Daly in to coach the League women. They’re tall and athletic and if they stick around they’ll be a force to be reckoned with.
Their League team was truly blessed with Trav, Andy and Nik West all coming back. Not only that, but it meant that about 4 of their starters from last year’s 3rd-place team are now in their reserves team. Both teams finished top and won their first finals matches to go straight through to the Grand Final. Lion’s league team and south’s reserve team both finished second. They both lost their first finals matches to norwood’s teams and so with the second chance they might both end up in the grand finals making it a 2001 replay.
Since I’ve still got a soft spot for my old club, i hope they win 2 premierships this time. It might even be worth turning up to watch.
