Six wins in a row for Montrose made up for a slow start to the year, the Demons making the finals in season 2022 while the club had fantastic numbers in Netball with six teams competing.
By Ryan Long.
Montrose
Ladder Position: 4th (4-7-1, 85.71%)
Best and Fairest: Ben Dessent
Leading Goalkicker: Billy Schilling (37)
Summary:
One of the clubs that were most talked about in the pre-season this year with the announcement that Gary Ayres would be the new senior Coach of the Montrose Football Club.
It was an inconsistent start to the year for the Dees who won just four of their first twelve matches of the season. However, a late-season push saw them win six matches on the trot. Their last win of the season against Croydon pushed the blues out of finals contention and guaranteed Montrose a spot in the five.
An Elimination Final was set against Wantirna South at Tormore Reserve. With the wind playing havoc, momentum was constantly changing but the Demons came away with a great 11-point win. They took on Mooroolbark a week later in the Semi Final. A much-improved performance from the last time these sides met saw the Demons in front at three-quarter time. Inaccuracy would come back to bite them however as the Mustangs ran out fifteen-point winners.
With a strong second half to the year, Montrose has proven what they’re capable of and will be desperate to get off to a much better start to the year in 2023.
Key Players:
Ben Dessent was fantastic in season 2022, winning the club’s best and fairest.
Just behind him in the vote count were Riley Hams and Brad Watson.
Jack Garthwaite’s role down back earned himself a position in the Division One Team of the Year at Full Back. Max Hall also featured in the team, eight times in the club’s best from just twelve games in his first year of senior football.
Best Win: Elimination Final – Montrose 11.8 74 def. Wantirna South 9.9 63 @Tormore Reserve
Montrose’s late-season run set up a massive Elimination Final clash against the Devils at Tormore Reserve.
With the wind in the first term, the Demons set up a handy four-goal lead but that had disappeared by the main change with the Devils’ seven-goal second term putting them in front. They wrestled back control in the third to regain the lead. It took until the 21-minute mark of the last quarter for the Demons to finally lay the killer blow through a Billy Schilling set-shot goal.
The nine-point win was a memorable one for the club, their seventh consecutive win. Riley Hams was again dominant around the ground while Schilling finished with three goals including the match-winner.
Off-Season Focus:
With the dominant East Ringwood promoted, it’s a great chance for Montrose to see just how close they are to a premiership. Their second half of the season indicates a bit of growth in maturity compared to the prior year and a half.
The club have made quite a few announcements of recruits signing ahead of the 2023 season. Topping that list is former AFL player, Ryan Garthwaite. He played as a key defender during his time at Richmond but he does have the versatility to be used as a key forward or even in the ruck. It’s big news for the Demons who have already lost a couple of key players Andrew Haining and Billy Schilling.
The one thing that Montrose can’t allow for, is getting off to a slow start to the year. It worked out okay for the Dees this year but they were basically playing off in a series of elimination finals just to make the top five. Can’t be putting themselves in that position again.
Montrose Senior Women
Ladder Position: 5th (3-10-1, 46.75%)
Best and Fairest: Rachel Hardy
Leading Goalkicker: Tiaran Warford (13)
Summary:
The Montrose Senior Women’s side continued to develop in 2022. There were clear signs of improvement for the Demons as the season continued. They finished off the home and away season with back-to-back wins against Kilsyth and Heathmont. During the year, the side also had a draw with the eventual Grand Finalists East Ringwood.
Key Players:
As the club’s best and fairest in 2022, Rachel Hardy was brilliant, she featured in the best in all eleven games she played. Shae and Kayla Eslick both had great seasons too, finishing in the best eight times each while Matilda Wilson was the side’s most consistent player for the year. Shaanine Dove made great improvement from the 2021 season, playing all fourteen games for the year and in the best seven times.
Best Win: Round 13 – Montrose 5.7 37 def. Kilsyth 4.5 29 @Montrose Recreation Reserve
In the second-last match of the season, Montrose picked up their second win for the year against Kilsyth. The win was an impressive one considering Kilsyth would go on to play finals in 2022. The Demons had more of the footy in the first half but weren’t able to make the most of it on the scoreboard.
Kilsyth got out to a six-point lead at the final change but a dominant last quarter from Montrose kept the Cougars goalless while kicking two of their own.
Eliza Bentley and Eleanor Carroll starred in the eight-point win, both with two goals each.
Off-Season Focus:
The club will be looking to continue their development on the field while possibly adding a couple of more experienced players to its list. If they can continue to build on their improvement, there’s no reason why they can’t win a few more games and give themselves a chance at finals.
Netball Review
Montrose Demons (Section Three)
Ladder Position: 6th (9-8, 109.61%)
Montrose had several teams competing in the Bendigo Bank Netball competition. Their first team competed in section three, winning nine games for the year, and finishing sixth on the ladder. Blaithin Doyle had a fantastic season with 211 goals from sixteen games. The Best and Fairest for the side was Elly Bieniak, ahead of Brooke Junginger as the Runner Up.
Montrose Flames (Section Four)
Ladder Position: 3rd (13-4, 132.19%)
A great season for the club’s second Netball side, with thirteen wins from the 17-game season. They finished three games clear of fourth-placed Heathmont who they faced off against in the first semi-final. Although the two sides were tied on 17 points each at Half Time, the Jets broke away in the second half for a seven-point win. With a fantastic season, Stephanie Verhoef was the leading goal scorer for Section Four with 391 goals in the regular season. Verhoef was the second runner-up in the club’s best and fairest behind Runner Up Libby Talbot and the B&F winner Amanda Conway.
Montrose Devils (Section Six)
Ladder Position: 6th (5-10-1, 81.18%)
Five wins for the season for the Section Six Montrose side that finished sixth on the ladder. Their five wins came against Nunawading, Kilsyth, Heathmont, East Ringwood and finalist Ringwood. Samantha Prosenak led the scoring for the Devils team with 197 goals, one of the section’s top ten leading goal shooters. She finished runner-up in the club best and fairest behind Kayla Betheras who took out the honours.
Montrose Storm (Section Seven)
Ladder Position: 2nd (11-4-1, 152.83%)
Montrose Storm was one of two teams that the club had competing in section seven this season. Storm finished the ladder in second place. A draw with Heathmont early in the season was inevitably what kept them ahead of third and fourth place.
They took on Heathmont in the Semi Final, falling ten points short. A week later they took on Coldstream in the Preliminary Final, looking for a spot in the Grand Final. After a tight first three quarters, Coldstream broke away to win by nine points.
Jennifer Lutgens scored 140 goals for the season as the side’s leading goal scorer while Bek Hincksman took out Best and Fairest Honours.
Montrose Thunder (Section Seven)
Ladder Position: 5th (8-7, 122.48%)
The Montrose Thunder were the second team the club had up in section seven. The side moved up a section after playing their first three games in Section Eight. They didn’t finish too far behind Storm, with eight wins for the year and a fifth spot on the ladder at the end of the season. Naomi Mortimore was the side’s best and fairest winner, just ahead of Runner Up Erin Hussey.
Montrose Heat (Section Eight)
Ladder Position: 6th (4-9-1, 88.30%)
The final Montrose team finished sixth in Section Eight with four wins for the season. Those wins came against Ferntree Gully twice, the Waverley Blues and an impressive ten-point win over Mulgrave. Casey Hahn led the Heat’s scoring with 87 goals, also finishing up as the second runner-up in the Best and Fairest. Maddie White placed as Runner Up behind Kristy Andrews as the winner of the award.
Montrose Juniors
The Montrose Junior Football Club had a great 2022 season, fielding a massive 18 sides across all competitions.
In the girls’ competitions, the Under 12s had an undefeated home and away season before bowing out in the preliminary final. The Under 16 girls also made the preliminary final with star player Chelsea Gardeniers capping off a great personal season winning the EFNL League Best and Fairest player for the division, thus showing the growing strength of the Montrose girls program.
In the boys the club had three teams make finals. The under 12s making it to the last day of the season where they had a narrow loss to Rowville on the final day.
The Under 14s lost a nail biting preliminary final, whist the Under 15s got run over late in the elimination final against Lysterfield.