Century in sight: Violet Town's Jack Exell is five goals away from kicking 100 goals in the Kyabram district league, following in the footsteps of his father, Gavin.
Photo by
Aydin Payne
Girgarre coach Damien Cupido is 13 goals away from another milestone in a widely travelled career that has netted him more than 1200 goals since he left the AFL 16 years ago.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Cupido’s 12 goals against Tallygaroopna on Saturday took his 14-game tally to 87 goals, with only winless and bottom-ranked Longwood between him and a triple figure season.
Girgarre and Longwood play in the final round of the season, at Longwood, on Sunday. In round three this year Cupido kicked 16 against Longwood, one of three double-figure tallies for the season.
Aside from the league goalkicking title, the former Essendon and Brisbane forward will have further incentive — a big win for his team, and results going as expected, allowing Girgarre to finish in the finals for the first time since 2001.
Cupido and Violet Town’s ‘son of a gun’ Jack Exell will fight out the goalkicking title (at least for the home and away season).
Exell has kicked 95 goals from 14 games, including two bags of 13 and one of 17.
He has the tough assignment of facing top-of-the-ladder Avenel in the final round, having been held to three goals the first time the teams met in round two this season.
Exell’s goalkicking partner, Josh Mellington, has kicked 82 goals this season in just 11 matches. Mellington kicked five against Avenel the last time they met.
Exell’s father, 59-year-old Gavin, played 53 games for Geelong in five seasons, kicking 111 goals in a forward line that included Gary Ablett Snr, Barry Stoneham and Bill Brownless.
Exell Snr kicked 63 goals in 1989, but injury prevented him from being involved in arguably the greatest ever grand final. He finished his career in the top flight in 1992 after five games and two goals for Fitzroy.
Exell Snr won the 2000 (124), 2001 (135) and 2003 (126) Kyabram district league goalkicking titles, kicking 20 and 23 goals in the 2000-01 finals series.
Exell Jnr played with 16 games with Bendigo Pioneers in 2016, three senior games with Sandhurst and one with Geelong in the VFL.
In 2017 he kicked 61 goals for Stanhope in 19 games, the same year he kicked five goals in the interleague match.
More on page 16 in our Game On lift-out today.
Setting the standard: Former Stanhope goalkicking star Gavin Exell will watch from the sidelines as his son, either this weekend or during the finals, strives to match his century goalkicking feats.
Photo by
None
24°C