It's a Grand Old Flag for the Valley Sixths 

The Premiers: Moonee Valley Sixths L-R: Back - scorer Peter Smith, Pat Taylor, Jesse Felle, Joe Ansaldo, Michael Cumbo, Murray Walker and Shaun Rayment. Front - 12th man Grahame McCulloch, Sam Carbone, Dino Sapuppo, captain Danny Terzini, Mark Cini and Alex Gorham. PICTURE: ROD GORHAM

Moonee Valley Sixths played a heart-stopper over the March 15/16 weekend, but it just made it sweeter when Pat Taylor hit the winning runs to deliver us the 2013/14 Ralph Barron Shield premiership.
Craigieburn batted first and set us a challenge, after we had them in trouble early. But we restricted them to 170 on the back of Murray Walker's second successive five-wicket haul in the finals, and the race was on.
We lost wickets with enough frequency to leave Craigieburn thinking it was always in the hunt, and when we lost our seventh wicket to a dodgy caught-behind decision we still had a 42-run deficit.
But Jesse Felle opened his shoulders and Pat Taylor supported him, and we came home with a rattle to secure the flag.
It's the first time we have won a flag with our Sixth Eleven, playing in the North West Metropolitan Cricket Association.
And it was a first-time experience of a senior Valley premiership for the whole Eleven. Sam Carbone had previously won a flag with Buckley Park and Alex Gorham had won a premiership with the Valley Under 14s, but for the rest of our guys it was a new experience.
Our players had 1425 games of cricket for Moonee Valley without a premiership to show for it - until now!
The drought was led by Joe Ansaldo, who was playing his 291st game in the Grand Final, and skipper Danny Terzini with 248.
But they've all got medals around their necks now - and we intend ensuring that the drought turns into a deluge in years to come!
The Valley Boys are here to stay, the Valley boys are here to stay!

**For more PICTURES and words from the flag win, click HERE.

Our Fifths fall short

Moonee Valley's Fifths fell short in their bid to win our inaugural premiership in our first season in the Mercantile Cricket Association, but they still had a season to be proud of.
After losing just four games during the 20-game season, our boys won their semi final.
Then it was down to picturesque Fawkner Park in South Yarra for the Grand Final. After being sent in to bat on a wicket that had a couple of damp spots, our total of 93 was never going to be enough.
We had a dip, but Canterbury passed us three wickets down.
Congratulations to skipper Darren Nagle for his commitment to junior development, with four players from the Under 16s playing in both the semi and grand final, and 15 young players getting the chance to play on turf during the course of the season.
Over the course of the March 23 Grand Final we had more than 50 Moonee Valley supporters turn up to cheer on our team. Sadly for the 11 - and 12th man Michael Ozbun - it was to no avail.
Spud spoke eloquently in defeat when he congratulated Canterbury on the win, and confirmed that our move to Mercantile with our two lower turf teams had been a wise choice.


Above right: The Moonee Valley faithful sit under our Toyota marqees under the spreading trees on the boundary. Matt Wenlock was a rock with the bat, with Darren Nagle backing up at the non-striker's end.


At left: Jack Newman looked poised at the crease, but fell to an excellent catch.




*** Watch for a link to more pictures.

Moonee Valley's dress rehearsal
When our guys haven't got cricket to occupy themselves on the weekend - watch out!
Moonee Valley players whose seasons had finished the previous week congregated at Ormond Park over the Labor Day long weekend to watch and cheer on their team-mates.
But they were no ordinary spectators. Fancy dress got to them, and we had some weird and wonderful characters frequenting the clubrooms and scaring the children of the opposition teams.
Among them were our UK import Kris Garland dressed as Mitchell Johnson, and Firsts skipper Matt Thomas dressed as the Pom we love to hate, Kevin Pietersen. But it was all in good fun, and the guys certainly cheered on the Sixths to a Grand Final berth, and gave good voice to the Fifths as they wrapped up another win to go into the finals on top of the ladder.
Above: Just like the Village People - only worse! Moonee Valley players whose season had finished got together at Ormond Park on the long weekend, as the Sixths played their way into a grand final. L-R Dan Comande, Kris Garland as 'Mitchell Johnson', Steven Ward, Bede Gannon (front), Matt Thomas as 'Kevin Pietersen', Jake de Niese, Ben Thomas as 'Bede Gannon' and Michael Ozbun.

Our MVP night action
The Moonee Valley Most Valuable Player vote count was held at the Reunion Bar in Ascot Vale on Sunday, March 9. and our Valley boys turned out in force.

It was a noisy and racous count, as we were celebrating a good win by the Sixths to go into their Grand Final, and commiserating with our Fourths, who couldn't getover the line.


*Voting details and more info and pictures to come.... 

100 games is a Walk in the park
Congratulations to Murray Walker for playing his 100th senior game for Moonee Valley.
Playing in the Sixths on February 15, Murray took 3/34 as Moonee Valley rolled County West just four wickets down, taking over from them as top of the ladder.
Murray's now the eighth player to come through our junior program and play 100 senior games.
He's also taken 135 wickets and made 950 runs.
Murray was a co-captain in our Under 16s and also had the honor of captaining our Sevenths in its first-ever game during our expansion phase.
He was the inaugural winner of our junior Chris Ayers Trophy for best player in the Under 16s, named after the parent who had the foresight to start our junior program in 1996.
Murray also won the Terry Scott Medal for best junior umpire, having umpired junior matches for three seasons.
He missed two seasons while living in Canberra, and his availability for matches is still a bit iffy at the moment due to weekend work commitments.
But Murray's a hard trainer - when he comes down to training - and so congratulations on your milestone, Muz!

Picture: A Walk in the park - Murray Walker at Ormond Park for his 100th
senior game, with captain Dan Terzini and team-mate Jesse Felle behind him.

 Main Club contact details:

Charlie Walker - President 0409 237 543; 9370 1802
Peter Golding - Club Secretary 0419 009 721
Simon Thornton - Vice President 0417 570 779

Email: mooneev@club.cricketvictoria.com.au


For more contacts, see " Office bearers & Officials " under "Club News & Info" at the top of the page

Last updated: March 25, 2014.

For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE