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STATE CHAMPIONS & HERALD SHIELD PREMIERS
2003 Senior Boys Football
Our only team to ever win both the State Title and the Herald Sun Country Shield in the one year, this may be our greatest Football team ever.
They took the Shield by 50 points against Warnambool’s Brauer College at Port Melbourne in July, to become our 4th Shield Champions in history (alongside 1999, 1987, 1985).
Then in the VSSSA State Final, Year 10 Matt Graham kicked the match-winning goal against a Box Hill High School led by future Hawthorn 4-time Premiership player Jordan Lewis, to win that Title by 3 points at Oakleigh. Graham’s goal must sit alongside the match winner of Chris Thewlis in the 2005 Year 7 Final, as one of our greatest moments in School Football history.
Although Year 11 Michael “Juice” Newton, who would debut for Melbourne and take AFL Mark Of The Year 4 years later, was the only future AFL player, the team is otherwise stacked with talent.
There were 4 boys that played in a junior Victorian Country team. Newton and Matt Graham were both in the Under 16 team of that year (2003), while Michael Davidson would make the 2004 U18 team the following year, and Riley Minns had made the 2001 U16 squad 2 years prior.
Newton and Davidson would both be key Under 18 Murray Bushrangers the following year, with Davidson the Vice Captain, and Newton obviously drafted at Pick 43 in November 2004.
Then you have Jamie Allan, rover and widely regarded the team’s best player. Allan had won the Ovens & Murray 3rd Leo Dean Medal (League B&F) the year before as a Year 11, but was playing Seniors for the Wangaratta Rovers in 2003. He ended up renowned as one of the most skilled and brilliant midfielders the Ovens & Murray saw in the following decade. Allan spent some time at Box Hill in the VFL, and was shown interest by Hawthorn, and when returning home would win a Morris Medal in the O&M in 2011, and finish Runner-Up in 2009, as well as a Baker Medal in the Ovens & King in 2019 at the age of 34, to go with
Year 11 Daine Porter had already had a season of O&M 3rds, and also played a handful of Senior games for Wangaratta Magpies. He had interest form SANFL club Glenelg, but stayed at the Magpies and became a club legend – 300+ games (club record), 4 Premierships, multiple Best & Fairests, and an O&M Senior Interleague player.
Other Senior O&M Premiership players include Aaron Braden (Wangaratta – 2007, 2008), Ben Douthie (Wangaratta, 2017), as well as Newton (Wangaratta, 2017, 2022).
A few had long Senior careers for the Rovers. Captain John Conroy played 110 games and became the club’s Captain. Ben Kneebone would play 150+ games, many alongside his uncle and our BOG in the 1985 Herald Cup win, Matt Allen. Conroy and Kneebone were both key Blackman, and both ended up coaching Senior teams in the Ovens & King (Conroy Milawa, Kneebone Whorouly).
Anthony Tucci, another of the starting midfielders, was also playing Seniors for the Rovers that year, and was good enough to win a Senior B&F in his O&M career.
Thirteen of the boys played in the 2002 Rovers O&M Thirds Premiership the year prior – Allan, Tucci, Davidson, Ben Bussell, Martin Cook, Michael Davidson, Nick Dillon, Jason Freeman, Blair Oliver, Scott Oliver, Andrew Vincent and Joel Witte.
Eleven would play in the 2003 Rovers Thirds flag shortly after the State Final – Kneebone (Captain), Cook, Dillon, Graham, Vincent, Dan Besley, Bryce Porker, Ashley Sheldrick and Ben Spence.
Bussell, Cook, Dillon, and Vincent were the 4 to go back-to-back flags.
Many played in Senior Premierships in the Ovens & King – Jack Stamp, Ray Usher and Scott Pell (Milawa) and Scott Oliver, Daniel McCormick and Daniel Salmon (Tarrawingee). Stamp would kick hundreds of goals and Captain the Demons, and “Hopper” McCormick would win multiple B&Fs.
Of course many of the boys were sons of Champions or had strong Football genetics. Cook’s father Barry (also a former student) won 5 Senior Premierships for the Rovers. Porter’s father Noel played in 2 Rovers flags (alongside Cook), and brother Judd played in 3 flags, two as Captain. McCormick’s father Ian was in the 1976 flag for the Magpies, as did older brother Jon (2007, 2008) who also won a Morris Medal and played for Carlton. Nick Dillons’ father Martin was a star in the SANFL, once name in the SANFL Team Of The Year.
GOALKICKERS: Matt Graham 3, Anthony Tucci 3, Jamie Allan 2, Scott Pell 2, Matt Solimo 2, Joel Witte 2, Michael Newton 1, Blair Oliver 1, Daine Porter 1, Daniel Salmon 1.
BEST PLAYER VOTES: Jamie Allan 10, John Conroy 10, Anthony Tucci 8, Blair Oliver 4, Nick Dillon 3, Daniel Steele 3, Ben Kneebone 1, Scott Pell 1, Daine Porter 1,
