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Important update on 1476AMCountry bag for ex-Power, Dogs tall as Magpies great anchors Anzac win in black and white
Country Footy Scores • April 28th, 2026 4:45 pm
As with last week, we’ve unfortunately had another club withdrawing a junior grade due to a lack of players. Last Tuesday the Wickliffe Lake Bolac FNC in the Mininera and District FNL have concluded that they will not be able to field an Under 17 football team for the rest of the season. The decision was made due to the limited number of older players available, and requiring their Under 13 players and opposing clubs to help fill the numbers.
As mentioned last week, the Corryong FNC put out an SOS to enable it to have enough players for its opening round clash in the Upper Murray FNL this weekend. The call was answered and the club was able to get sides on the park for the matches against Tumbarumba FNC. In the Warrnambool and District FNL the Dennington FNC called a mid week meeting to address its plans for the future, coming on the back of consecutive 189 and 316 point losses in the first two rounds. Unfortunately things on field didn’t improve this weekend when they were on the end of a 294 point loss at the hands of Nirranda FNC, going down 46.28 304 to 1.4 10. This leaves the Bulldogs with 43 points for, 842 points against and a percentage of 5.11 after just three games.
It was a long weekend of football across the state with ANZAC Day falling on Saturday, meaning several leagues were creative with their fixturing of matches that stretched from Friday night through to Sunday afternoon. A big feature was several leagues having twilight and night games on Saturday to abide by the time restrictions of playing sport on ANZAC Day itself. Whilst this made for some great events and marquee matches, it did create a small issue for the Horsham and District FNL.
The twilight match between Lahaurum FNC and Rupanyup FNC, which started at 4:30 p.m on Saturday, ended early as a result of the power going out. Given the time of the evening when this took place and that the lights could not be used for the match to finish, the game was called off at the start of the last quarter with Laharum FNC claiming the four points as they were leading at the time. I really hope they considered the old style way to finish a late match by ringing the ground with car headlights!
The biggest news of the round has to be the result from the North Gippsland FNL where the Gormandale FNC ended a run of 64 straight losses and a draw in round 1 with a 23 point win over Yarram FNC, 16.17 113 to 14.6 90. This was the first time the Tigers got to sing the club song since Round 1 2022, when they beat Cowwarr FNC by 17 points, and was capped off by all football grades and all bar 1 netball grade winning as well on the day. The club now sits in 5th place on the ladder with 1 win, 1 loss and a draw for 2026 so far. They also hand the longest active losing streak banner over to the Campbell's Creek FNC from the Maryborough Castlemaine District FNL who currently own a 54 game run of outs which is 8 behind the Maryborough FNC from the Bendigo FNL, who are currently in recess.
Other clubs to break losing streaks this weekend included Portarlington FNC from the Bellarine FNL and Clunes FNC in the Central Highlands FNL who both ended 10 game losing runs, while Tarrawingee FNC in the Ovens and King FNL won for the first time in nine games when they defeated the Benalla All Blacks FNC by five points, with the All Blacks now on a run of 10 losses themselves.
As with last week, it was another weekend of big scores with five of the biggest scores so far for 2026 being kicked in a round where five teams scored over 200 points in matches making it the second week in a row where there were over 20 games with winning margins over 100 points. Even though there were several leagues who had byes for the ANZAC weekend, the overall average winning margin across the state also jumped over 50 points for the first time this season. While everyone loves high scoring and shoot out matches, the disparity in scoring is a concern this early in the season.
With former Sale FNC player Scott Pendlebury closing in on the AFL games record, the current holder, former Roo Brent Harvey, pulled on the boots again with his first game back with Trentham FNC on the weekend. Harvey helped his side to a big win in their Maryborough Castlemaine District FNL clash with Newstead FNC. In the Ballarat FNL, former Tiger and Roo Biggie Nyuon kicked 7 for Ballarat FNC in the 15.11 101 to 5.14 44 win over Lake Wendouree, while former Hawk Denver Grainger-Barras kicked another 5 for North Ballarat FNC in their 98 point win over East Point FNC. Former premiership Pie Heath Shaw helped out on and off field for Lucknow FNC as they won the standalone ANZAC Day clash against Paynesville FNC in the East Gippsland FNL, while former Power and Western Bulldog tall Jackson Trengove kicked 6 of his own for Cobram FNC in the Murray FNL.
The forwards started firing last week and that continued again across the ANZAC weekend with seven kicking bags of ten plus goals, including the biggest bag so far this season. In the Picola & District FNL, Waaia FNC’s Connor Brown had a day out against Rennie FNC, slotting 16 majors, while not far behind with 14 goals was Nirranda FNC’s Jeremy Stacey. His teammate Isaac Stephens also had a big day kicking 11 goals of his own, while Cobram FNC’s Ben Ryan also walked away with 11 of his own against Rumbalara FNC.
We have a new leader overall with Kiewa Sandy Creek FNC’s Guy Telford kicking 10 against Rutherglen FNC to jump to 29 goals overall, 1 ahead of last week's leader Harry Moran from Greta FNC who kicked 8 to now sits on 28. Brown’s haul of 16 rockets him up to third place with 24 for the season so far, leapfrogging East Geelong FNC’s Zac Smith who sits in fourth with 23 in total so far for the season.
