Honors for Club legends at

Presentation Night

Two of Moonee Valley's finest clubmen received special honors at our Presentation Night on April 13.
Three-hundred-gamer Mark Gauci - third on our all-time games list - received the only major honor which had eluded him up until now - our most prestigious trophy, the Lindsay Jones Award for best clubman.
At left: Mark Gauci responds to the announcement of his Lindsay Jones Award, while President Charlie Walker holds his plaque and the perpetual trophy.
And Sean O'Kane, who received Life Membership last year, was stunned and surprised to hear it announced that the Moonee Ponds Award - for best player in all grades other than the Firsts - had been renamed in his honor.
Fittingly, close mate Mark Gauci, who has played in two premierships with Sean - in the Firsts and the Sixths - was the inaugural winner of the Sean O'Kane Award.
And Sean's other closest mate at Moonee Valley, Dean Jukic, had the honor of announcing the renaming of the award and the inaugural winner, and had the crowd of more than 70 on the edge of their seats as he delivered an excellent and often-humorous speech, as only Deano can do it.
Jack Newman won the Club Champion Award.
Young star Krish Kanchan, who went from Under 14s-eligible to six games in our Firsts, was a runaway winner of the Most Improved Award.
At right: Three great mates together: L-R Sean O'Kane, Mark Gauci and Dean Jukic are honored.
Geoff McKeown won the Wicketkeeper of the Year.
And the Moonee Valley Cricket Club inducted its 30th and 31st Life Members - Ben Thomas and Peter Smith.
Ben and Postcode were joined at the front of the venue by the other Life Members present - Darren Nagle, Jim Polonidis, Danny Terzini, Matt Thomas, Sean O'Kane, Mark Gauci, Dean Jukic, Michael Cumbo, Jim McKenzie, Charlie Walker and Ian Denny. 
Thanks to our long-time sponsors the Moonee Ponds Club, which has been supporting our cricket club for well over a decade for again providing an excellent venue and a great meal.
**Watch this space for more words and photos from Presentation night: Click HERE  

Introducing our new Senior Coach: Tony Gleeson

Moonee Valley Cricket Club is proud to announce the appointment ofTony Gleeson as our senior coach for the 2019/20 season.
Tony, who coached the Moonee Valley First Eleven to a premiership in the old Moreland Moonee Valley Cricket Association in 2000/01, comes back to us after more than a decade at Premier club Carlton, which culminated in a First Eleven premiership earlier in April.
At right: Moonee Valley's newly-appointed senior coach, Tony Gleeson (far right) with Firsts captain Jack Newman.
Club President Charlie Walker said he ws thrilled to welcome Tony "home" to Ormond Park.
Even during his time at Carlton Tony maintained close links with Moonee Valley, playing occasional games when available in our lower turf teams and being a regular in the MVCC teams at the Barooga Over 35s tournaments for the past six years - including winning the competition in January this year.
Tony initially took on a role as Seconds team manager at Carlton, was chairman of selectors for a number of  years and for the past four seasons was team manager of the Firsts, including for this year's premiership.
Tony has already identified a tighter and more focused training program to ensure that players can get the best out of themselves on training days, and a greater emphasis on enjoying their cricket and the cameraderie of a team sport. This will be aided by moving back into our new $2.5 million Ormond Park clubrooms from the portables which housed the club for the 2018/19 season.
A 94-game player at Moonee Valley, including the 2000/01 First Eleven premiership, Tony is impressed with the young players from our juniors who are already making a name in senior ranks.
He is keen to review the playing list for our top grades in association with Vice President Mark Gauci, and is happy to consider applications to join the club.
Any player wishing to find out more should ring Charlie Walker on 0411 705 381.  

Congratulations to our young guns

Two of Moonee Valley's young guns won all-of-comp awards at the North West Metropolitan Cricket Association presentation night.
Harry Pickering collected the runner-up award in the Under 14 (1) bowling, while Noah Wallwork collected the Under 16 batting award.
Both Harry and Noah played senior cricket with us during the 2018/19 season - Harry making his debut, while Noah had previously played turf with the Valley.
The Under 14s missed out on the finals when tipped out by the last ball of the day in the last match of the season.
The Under 16s played the Grand Final at home at Ormond Park on two consecutive Friday evenings, but fell short in the run chase by 17 runs.
We had a formidable batting line-up in the Under 16s, with the top four bats - Noah Wallwork, Bevan Holder, Krish Kanchan and Luca Nimorakiotakis - all averaging more than 50 across the season.
Junior Co-ordinator Peter Pickering is already working and planning for next season, and sees a bright future for our junior program and the pathway into senior cricket.
Well done to our young men!
Above: Our junior comp award winners: Harry Pickering (left) with the Under 14 (1) runner-up bowling award, and Noah Wallwork with his Under 16 batting award.

Our Most Valuable Player and Fieldlow results

The Valley seniors held our MVP and fielding award vote counts at the Moonee Valley Bowls Club on March 10, and the call of the card brought plenty of excitement with each vote.
The count was hosted by Jonty Rhodes giving a brief account of every round of every game, while Peter Golding showed his skill with computers by adding the votes instantly to the big screen, along with the leader board after every round.
While it was the senior presentation night, some of our younger players who played a lot of senior cricket got into the action.
Junior Joshua Norsetter was prominent among them, winning the fielding awards for both the Thirds and Fourths, as well as the Fourths MVP.
And one of our gun fielders, Shaun Rayment, won the Sixths Fieldlow award as well as finishing runner-up in the Thirds. Shaun played and polled votes in every grade from the Seconds to the Sixths. He was also selected as 12th man for the Firsts for one game until a late replacement came through - and surely would have earned fielding votes there as well.
At right: Some of our MVP and Fieldlow winners from the night: L-R Mark Gauci, Paddy Shelton, Daniel Comande, Jim Polonidis, Cassidy Box and Jack Newman.
Our winners and runners-up in each grade are:
Firsts Fieldlow: Daniel Comande 19 votes, Channa DeSilva 15 votes
Firsts MVP: Jack Newman 39 votes, Shiwantha Kumara 32
Seconds Fieldlow: Damien Clarke 12, Nate Wolland 9
Seconds MVP: Jim Polonidis 107 (different voting system), Stephen Ward 83
Thirds Fieldlow: Josh Norsetter 11, Shaun Rayment 7
Thirds MVP: Dean Lawson 21. Mark Gauci 21 (equal winners), Jesse Felle 20
Fourths Fieldlow: Josh Norsetter 14, Ben Skok 7, Akshay Kapadia 7
Fourths MVP: Joshua Norsetter 31, Stephen Esmore 29
Fifths Fieldlow: Paddy Shelton 11, Elliott Hughes 10
Fifths MVP: Cassidy Box 24, Jesse O’Grady 22
Sixths Fieldlow: Shaun Rayment 8, Nick Taylor 7
Sixths MVP: Sam Carbone 14, Danny Terzini 13

Thanks to Frosty Simmons and the bowls club for hosting the night, and to our sponsors Florentine's for the hearty meal. 
***For the full votes in each grade, click HERE

Looking to the future with our junior

stars

Moonee Valley Cricket Club held our junior presentation night at the bowls club on March 21.
While we missed out on any silverware in the North West Metropolitan Cricket Association, the event was the culmination of an excellent season and an important pointer to the future.
At left: Our Under 14s with their trophies: L-R Jack Shears, Thomas Nightingale, Nam Nguyen, Jesse Maljanek-Smith, Harry Pickering, Joel Sheridan, Riley Walsh, Noah Nimorakiotakis, coach Peter Pickering and Dejan Gilevski.
The Under 16 team made the Grand Final, while the Under 14s - who won a flag the previous season - missed out on finals by the smallest possible margin - losing the last home and away game of the season off the last ball of the innings to drop out of contention.
But most of the Under 16s and a number of the Under 14s played senior cricket, so we've got a lot to look forward to - especially with Junior Co-ordinator Peter Pickering confirming he's back in the role for next season.
At right: Almost there: Our Under 16s at presentation night. L-R Max Pickering, Tomas Morrissy, Krish Kanchan, Bevan Holder, Jack Cumming, Noah Wallwork, co-trainer Brendan Rhodes, Felix Fischer, Dylan Pleban, Jamie Akhurst, Luca Nimorakiotakis and coach Stephen Ward. Front: Keeper Caoimhin Corcoran.
Krish Kanchan, in his first season at Moonee Valley, won the Junior Club Champion trophy, as well as the Most Improved: Coach's Award in senior ranks.
Moonee Valley also had good seasons with our other junior teams - two Under 12 teams, including a joint team with Coburg, and a group of enthusiastic Under 10s.
We're all looking forward to 2019/20.

    Main Club contact details:

* Charlie Walker - President/Secretary 0411 705 381; 9370 1802
* Peter Golding - Treasurer 0419 009 721
* Mark Gauci - Vice President 0457 778 335
* Peter Pickering - Junior Co-ordinator 0414 800 145  pjp@vicbar.com.au 
* Channa DeSilva - Membership Co-ordinator 0402 833 592

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: April 18, 2019.
For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE