McCarthy spent this season with Goulburn Valley League club Mooroopna where he made a big impression after five seasons with Tongala.
The utility won Murray League’s O’Dwyer Medal in 2021.
McCarthy played all his junior football with Kyabram teams and won the Goulburn Murray Junior League’s Keith Saddlier Under 14 medal.
Another quality recruit is 2019 premiership player Jack Sheldon, who returns to the club after spending this season with Moama.
GVL Abikhair medallist Sean Dillon is also returning from Moama and will assist Scott Hearn as reserves coach.
Other former Kyabram players returning are Mitch Gugliotti and Billy McLay from Tongala and Lancaster pair Sam Vick and Zac Cerrone.
Kyabram co-coach Cory Carver said the club’s main recruiting focus was bringing former Kyabram players back to play with their home club.
Carver said star recruits from this year, Queensland quartet, ruckman Marcus Khoo, Bailey Tome, Jackson Griffiths and Jake Torney, would almost certainly line up again.
The only notable loss has been key forward Brad Mangan, while this season’s best and fairest winner Liam Ogden will be overseas for the first two thirds of the season but back before the finals.
Carver said this year’s captain, Zac Norris, who didn’t play a game after shoulder surgery in late 2023, so far has not committed for next season and is pondering his future.
Carver said the club was still talking to other prospective new players.
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Echuca Football Club’s triple premiership-winning brothers Sam and Ben Reid are launching their own junior academy to nurture local talent.
And they hope to entice young players aged between 12 and 16 from Kyabram and Tongala and the surrounding area to Echuca, as well as Echuca Moama youngsters, to upgrade their skills in a one-hour weekly session.
The brothers, who have been conducting an academy for Echuca Football Club juniors, feel there is a need for elite training for young players in this region and will launch the academy next month.
It seems a chance too good to miss for young players. Those interested or seeking more information can visit @thereidacademy on Instagram or Facebook or email admin@thereidacademy
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Seymour Football Netball Club has honoured one of its stalwarts by naming the club’s senior football best and fairest award after him.
Gary Brown gave more 65 years to the club, first as a teenage program seller then as a player, coach and administrator dating back to the club’s days in the former Waranga North East League in the mid-1950s.
His resume with the Lions involves coaching two under-16s sides to premierships, 34 years as the seniors’ team manager and GVL delegate, chairman of both the club’s Team of the Century and Decade, producer of the club’s annual report from 1988 to 2023 and a massive 34 seasons as club secretary.
But the most satisfying time was the period from 2005 to 2007 when the Lions were unbeatable and won three successive GVL flags.
After the marathon stint, Gary stepped down last year and you would think with a such a record the new committee selecting GVL Hall Of Fame nominations would have to be impressed.
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Kyabram District Football League club Avenel won’t have its 2024 coach, Matt Huy, or the Avola brothers next season.
Braydon Avola, the 2023 McNamara medallist — he was runner-up in 2022 — and his brother Corey are heading back to their home club of Whittlesea, which competes in the Northern Football League in Melbourne’s outer north.
Non-playing Huy, who took over as coach from Kasey Duncan last year, has also stepped down as coach of the Swans.
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Former AFL star Jeff Garlett will pull on the boots with Picola Football League club Jerilderie in 2025.
Garlett played 107 games with Carlton and 78 with Melbourne up to 2019, kicking a total of 321 goals as a small forward.
He played one game for Jerilderie this year and conducted junior clinics for the club, which prompted it to go all out to get him to commit for next season.
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