Outstanding ruck woman Tash Ross-Harris – better known to her team mates as Rosso – is carrying the Fitzroy-ACU hopes into the final selection for the first Women’s Big V team to play this weekend.
The VAFA Women’s Big V squad of 61 has been cut to 30 and Tash has made the cut. The final 24 will be selected before the team travels to North Ballarat this weekend to play the AFL Goldfields side this Sunday.
Good luck Rosso and great effort Gemma Minuz and Claudia Bell, who represented Fitzroy-ACU in the women’s squad.
Pippos, Ashmore headline Women in Footy lunch
One of Australia’s leading sports presenters, Angela Pippos, will be the star of our third annual Women in Football lunch on Saturday 22 July at Brunswick Street Oval.
Brisbane Lions’ AFLW star, Kaitlyn Ashmore, will also join the fun along with Fitzroy-ACU Captain, Gemma Minuz.
Pippos is a journalist, TV presenter, radio personality, author and MC, and of course an Adelaide Crows fan! She’s appeared on many sports programs including Network Ten’s Before the Game and The Back Page on Fox Sports and is a regular on ABC radio and TV.
Angela has just released her second book, Breaking The Mould – Taking A Hammer To Sexism In Sport and the television documentary she wrote, produced and presented about the rise of women in Australian Rules football, League of Her Own, aired on the Seven Network in February 2017.
Fitzroy has featured great women in the football industry for the last few years at our Women in Footy lunches, including Katie Brennan, Lauren Arnell, Jane Lange (former Darebin Falcons Coach and now Carlton AFLW Assistant Coach), Steph Chiocci and more.
This is a great opportunity to hear Angela’s thoughts on what has been an incredibly successful year for women in football and maybe a little of what she thinks might happen next and what still needs to change.
There will also be an opportunity to hear from Kaitlyn Ashmore about her experiences in the first season of AFLW and how it felt to play in the first AFLW Grand Final.
And captain Gemma will provide some insights about the Roy Girls and their 2017 season.
Angela’s book, Breaking The Mould – Taking A Hammer To Sexism In Sport, is selling like wildfire and you can get your copy here. Perhaps you could bring it along to the lunch and get an autograph on your copy.
Book now for the lunch as tickets are likely to be very popular
Bookings will close on Wednesday 19 July or as soon as they sell out.
Fitzroy’s Reserves have pulled off an upset, defeating second placed Old Brighton to stay within reach of the finals.
There were plenty of celebrations after a strong finish and a convincing final scoreline of 8.3.51 to 4.3.27. It was good to see Lewis Pavlich named best player with two goals, responding well to being dropped from the seniors. It was a very even team performance and the team is now one game and percentage out of the four.
There is plenty to look forward to with Luke Ablett threatening to pull on the boots for the Reserves, having completed his registration and transfer last week.
Meanwhile the Thirds are outright fourth after a very big win over Old Trinity – their first in quite some time.
Simon Heather kicked a massive eight goals to lead the team to a 14.7.91 to 5.9.39 victory. Locky Davis kicked three goals, with Brayden Younger, Nathan White and Tom Osborn the best players.
Eight changes will never be easy to cover, but a very young, inexperienced Fitzroy Senior line up took the game right to top side Old Brighton last Saturday before the damn burst in the last quarter.
Five debutants and several Under 19 players graced BSO with the likes of Julian Turner, Corbin Stevic, Luke Baker, Tom Cheshire, Max Ellis and new gun forward Nino Lazzaro missing.
Captain Rory Angiolella was one of only two members of the leadership group on the ground and like he always does, he took the responsibility on. He was never out of the contest and was named Fitzroy’s best player for the day.
Ruckman Harris Scholz-Mitchell and Ted Clayton were the other two to gain awards from the coaches.
Speaking of Ted, Fitzroy had something of a special moment on Saturday when he and his brother Bill, who are twins, played in the senior side together for the first time. Excellent! (Sorry Bill and Ted, we had to do it!)
Coach Nick Mitchell had plenty of praise for his young team and their efforts, particularly in the first half.
Old Brighton’s Harry Hill was outstanding and was awarded the VAFA 125 Club Round medal by the umpires.
In something of a surprise, the Fitzroy-ACU Women 1 team suffered its second loss of the season to Marcellin, but retains second spot on the Premier Women’s ladder.
A much tighter affair for Women 2 against St Mary’s Salesian has given the side plenty to build on for next week and beyond. The team went down to St Mary’s Salesian 4.4.28 to 0.4.4 at Ferndale Park.
Missing several of its players who scored a Senior gig, an undermanned Fitzroy Under 19 (1) team fought hard but went down to top side St Bede’s Mentone. Joshua Robinson and Jake Stewart were Fitzroy’s best with Antonio Watts kicking two goals.
Get your bowls teams together
Fitzroy Victoria Bowling & Sports Club is launching a new bowls competition and discounted social membership just for Fitzroy players, sponsors and supporters.
Start planning your team of three for a fun morning of social bowls, a lesson, plus a free BBQ. The team fee of $5 might just be the best money you ever spend.
The competition will run on Sunday 30 July from 11am to 1.30pm.
Aside from the BBQ, there will be free tea and coffee. The bar will be open with drinks at the usual prices.
Details of how to book will be available soon.
One month to go on the club’s major fundraiser – have you got your raffle tickets?
Why not have a $3000 contribution to your next trip courtesy of the Fitzroy Football Club?
A $3000 travel voucher to the destination of your choice is the first prize in our major raffle for 2017. Tickets are now on sale.
There are some wonderful prizes – for footy fans, second prize may even be better than first - and tickets are just $10 each. Don't miss out on the opportunity to win:
First prize: a $3000 travel voucher (to the destination of your choice)
Second prize: Two (2) tickets to the 2017 Toyota AFL Finals Series, including the 2017 Toyota AFL Grand Final, valued at approx $1200, donated by the Brisbane Lions FC: AFL authorised GF promotion (GFAFL17/49)
Third prize: a StarCash card to the value of $500, donated by Caltex Australia.
Tickets must be purchased by 5 August 2017 and they will be drawn at 6pm on 12 August 2017 in the Community Rooms at Brunswick Street Oval during the post-match presentation after Fitzroy takes on Old Carey. Results published 15 August on FFC website www.fitzroyfc.com.au
You can purchase tickets from any Fitzroy player, at home games at Brunswick Street Oval, and via the Fitzroy website.
Thank you very much to the sponsors of this raffle, the Brisbane Lions Football Club and Caltex Australia.
The big issues on the table at the Rotary lunch
A huge thank you to the Fitzroy Victoria Bowling & Sports Club and Fitzroy Rotary for hosting last week’s pre-game lunch, which had to be moved at the last minute.
Guest speaker Fiona Patten MLC, Leader of the Australian Sex Party and member of the Victorian upper house, provided some great insights into the parliamentary processes and how she gets social issues of importance to her – medical use of cannabis, end of life choices, safe injecting facilities etc – onto the agenda.
She acknowledged that being an Independent creates its own freedom and her response to the public’s current attitude to politics is that it’s time to govern on policy not politics.
Jenny Farrar, who is the new Chair of the Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Bendigo Bank and long-time supporter of Fitzroy, also spoke at the lunch about the significant investment the bank has made in a wide range of community and sporting initiatives.
This week's games
There is a VAFA bye for all teams this weekend – enjoy the break!