SEASON 2025

After a famous AFL career, Gary Moorcroft returned to suburban football and became one of the legends of local footy.
Five premierships, four league goalkicking awards and multiple club best-and-fairests and goalkicking honours.
The former Essendon and Melbourne forward started out at Silvan in the Yarra Valley league before joining Romsey in the Riddell District.
Then came a decorated stint at Northern league power Bundoora before short stints at Bright and South Morang.
He’s played along side of some of the best talents to run around local grounds but, with great difficulty, has whittled it down to his best 22.


BACKS

BRENT MARSHALL (Bundoora)

Played in two premierships, good foot skills and reliable running out of defence. Captained the 2017 flag.

BEN SHELTON (Bundoora)

Always did his job, incredibly hard to play on as a lock-down full-back. Played in all three of our premierships.

MATT HYDE (Bundoora)

A really hard backman to play on. Read the ball really well and usually took the best forward. Played in the 2011 flag before going back to Greensborough.


HALF-BACKS

TRENT BARBARO (Bundoora)

A bit of a swingman but really strong when he played back. A great tackler and hard to move. Played in two premierships.

He played on me as well and he’s one of the toughest opponents I’ve played on when he moved to Hurstbridge.

AARON HENNEMAN (Silvan)

My former Essendon teammate speaks for himself at centre half-back. He’s a big boy and terrific mark. Played in the 2007 premiership.

SCOTT DOWELL (Bundoora)

Had dancing feet, basketball background, and some of the stuff he did was unbelievable. Would play on the best forwards as well and lock them down. Was a part


CENTRE

JOSH GRABOWSKI (Bundoora)

Pretty slick, hard-running wingman. A great ball carrier and had great skills. Played in the 2017 premiership.

DAVID MITCHELL (Bundoora)

Won a league B&F but an under-rated player I feel. Got his hands dirty, got in the face of players and just accumulated possessions. Played in all three of the premierships.

RICKY DYSON (Bundoora)

What can I tell you about him? Great endurance, great kick, hard-at-it and a great leader. Played in two premierships and coached the 2017 flag.


HALF-FORWARDS

BEN HAYNES (Silvan)

Ex-Essendon and Richmond boy. One of the best players I’ve seen both sides of his body. Would have laced me out numerous times at Silvan. Played in two premierships, kicked 115 goals in 2007 and then coached the club to the flag in 2008.

CAMERON CLOKE (Bundoora)

Just a big brute of a forward, great contested mark, a game-changer. Was in the 20011 and 2013 flags and won the Rosbrook Medal and league goalkicking double in 2011.

BRAYDEN SHAW (Bundoora)

A phenomenal leader, led from the front and got everyone up and about. Reliable in front of goals. Played in two flags and captained them both, was best-on-ground in the 2013 win.


FORWARDS

DANNY YOUNAN (Bundoora)

Just strong, could go in the midfield but always hit the scoreboard. Played in the 2017 flag.

ISAAC MULLER (Bundoora)

Only played a couple of years but so strong and kicked three goals in our 2017 premiership. Really tough to beat one-on-one.

GARY MOORCROFT (Silvan, Romsey, Bundoora, South Morang)

Can’t leave myself out.


FOLLOWERS

MATT DENNIS (Bundoora)

What can you say about Matty, he’s been phenomenal at local footy level. It’s got me stuffed how he didn’t make the AFL ranks. Was an extra midfielder around the ground. Played in all three of the premierships, was best-on-ground in the 2017 flag and won three league B&Fs.

MARC BULLEN (Silvan)

Hard-running, in-and-under and great skills. Played in the 2007-08 back-to-back premierships, tied with me for the club best-and-fairest in 2007 and won the best-on-ground medal in the grand final in 2008.

NATHAN THOMAS (Bundoora)

Another phenomenal leader. One of the hardest players I’ve seen attack the footy, just no fear for his body at all. Won a flag in 2017.



INTERCHANGE

SHANNON GREEN (Silvan, Romsey)

Was at North Heidelberg but I got him across to Silvan and then Romsey. Ever-reliable, always had your back. Could play a tagging role but accumulated possessions as well and won a league medal in the Riddell in 2011.

CHRIS GOODLET (Silvan)

A local boy. Great kick, great running power. Captain of the 2007 and 2008 premiership sides.

ANDREW CARMUSCIANO (Bundoora)

Could play forward, midfield, back. Put his body on the line week-in, week-out. Played in the 2011 and 2013 premierships.

MICHAEL FARRELLY (Bundoora)

Onballer but always kicked goals. Could be a strong defender too. Was part of the 2011 and 2013 premierships.

DAVID BISSELS (Silvan)

A 6’1 ruckman that could take great hangers. A key part of our premiership success.
 
Nice Gaz said:
Why would they have to do a lot of recruiting. Played in a granny last year with a young list. Picked a couple up and only lost 1 as far as i know.
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Doing a great job at Warburton. Focused on developing local talent and getting locals back to the club at minimal cost.

Club is in a really good place and will be thereabouts in 2025. Huynh returning to the club is a significant gain.
 
Was a bloody good side at the time, Silvan FNC and bankrolled by the Compass Group.

Those ex Essendon guys all came and worked hard and played good football. They were well paid but were good both on and off field and contributed to the premierships.

Goodlet was a gun. As good as any player in the league at the time.

One missing from that list was Laughton. He was a big man and could play. Great mark and kick for goal. Could kick it a mile.

Must have cost the club a bomb at the time and once Compass support ended the success at the club also came to an end and nearly saw the club go to the wall.

Was it worth it? Would be varied opinions I am sure although it certainly brought the league some significant publicity at the time.
 
localfootyguru said:
Was a bloody good side at the time, Silvan FNC and bankrolled by the Compass Group.

Those ex Essendon guys all came and worked hard and played good football. They were well paid but were good both on and off field and contributed to the premierships.

Goodlet was a gun. As good as any player in the league at the time.

One missing from that list was Laughton. He was a big man and could play. Great mark and kick for goal. Could kick it a mile.

Must have cost the club a bomb at the time and once Compass support ended the success at the club also came to an end and nearly saw the club go to the wall.

Was it worth it? Would be varied opinions I am sure although it certainly brought the league some significant publicity at the time.
Click to expand...

The most disappointing thing about it all was that they upped and left on mass mid season. That’s piss poor and a sign that they weren’t there for anything other than money. I remember the game after it happened they kicked one goal against a team they beat by over 150 points earlier in the season.
Would anyone really know if they were great blokes they never went in the rooms after games home or away.

I do however remember the league gave them heaps of player passes due to the Compass sponsorship.
Great times getting flogged and the club not making any money on the gate.
 
localfootyguru said:
Was a bloody good side at the time, Silvan FNC and bankrolled by the Compass Group.

Those ex Essendon guys all came and worked hard and played good football. They were well paid but were good both on and off field and contributed to the premierships.

Goodlet was a gun. As good as any player in the league at the time.

One missing from that list was Laughton. He was a big man and could play. Great mark and kick for goal. Could kick it a mile.

Must have cost the club a bomb at the time and once Compass support ended the success at the club also came to an end and nearly saw the club go to the wall.

Was it worth it? Would be varied opinions I am sure although it certainly brought the league some significant publicity at the time.
Click to expand...
What about Matthew brewer, gee I would've thought he'd make Garry's team
 
The jouneyman said:
What about Matthew brewer, gee I would've thought he'd make Garry's team
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I forgot about him The jouneyman. He was a ripping player. Silvan just had so many good players at the time. Stephen Andrews was an awkward looking kick but did he get the football a lot. Another good and very underrated player. Mcglaghan in the ruck was a man mountain too.
 
Glorfindel said:
Basin beat YG by about 7 goals in the seniors and about 15 in the ressies
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Went and had a look at this contest. Both sides missing a few due to cricket, especially The Basin FNC who are in the cricket grand final this weekend.

Both sides will do ok in their respective divisions. The Basin are a very young side but have some promising types. Yarra Glen will go well and look far more organised this year. A good hit out for both clubs.
 
localfootyguru said:
I forgot about him The jouneyman. He was a ripping player. Silvan just had so many good players at the time. Stephen Andrews was an awkward looking kick but did he get the football a lot. Another good and very underrated player. Mcglaghan in the ruck was a man mountain too.
Click to expand...
Stevie Andrews he was gun onballer, loved it when they moved him to half back in those 07/08 premiership sides, he was in his mid-thirties then, but still super fit, gave them huge run off half back.
Mcglaghan was rock solid too very loyal. wish they never left the league to be truthful.
 
NorthernBastard said:
Has been through a few clubs now - wonder if he got a nice $ign on?
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He would have got something but is a good friend of the coach who has got him to come to Powelltown.

He has certainly played at a few clubs, 6 I believe.

Will be a good acquisition if he stays fit and can play each game.
 
No offence to Monbulk but with the team they had last year and not many big recruits, how in the world did they even pay close to the $120k a year? They must have been paying massive overs to some players. And who was there supposed playing assistant also?
 
Pendles1991 said:
No offence to Monbulk but with the team they had last year and not many big recruits, how in the world did they even pay close to the $120k a year? They must have been paying massive overs to some players. And who was there supposed playing assistant also?
Click to expand...

$120K is a lot but when you break it down it’s $300 for 22 players per game over 18 games. Now if you consider that club that are further out often have to cover things like fuel etc to incentivise players to get there it makes a bit more sense.

It’s still a hell of a lot, but tradies can make a killing working a Saturday these days so I can half rationalise it. I think the bigger issue is that you’ve got so many unpaid, unskilled people doing really complex work for clubs whilst the player numbers at a lot of clubs are being held up by blokes being paid to play to kick a pigskin in a local park.

Men’s footy and especially cricket at a local level are reaching tipping points when it comes to sustainable business models. Meanwhile, women’s footy and cricket with next to no paid players is going from strength to strength, albeit off much lower bases. Something in that?

apologies for the late night waffle 😆
 

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