Mount Pleasant the top performed club of 2021 season across all grades

The Addy's top 50 ranked HDFNL players of season 2021 - consistent Craig takes out No.1 spot

LOCKINGTON-Bamawm United coach Brodie Collins says he couldn't be more proud of his playing group for the way it has adapted to all the challenged thrown at it - on and off the field - in the Heathcote District league this year.

With the HDFNL season having been officially called off on Thursday without a finals series being played, the Cats will go down in the league's history books as the 2021 minor premiers for finishing on top of the ladder.

The Cats entered the 2021 season as the raging flag favourite and carrying high expectation and although they won't get the chance to prove it on grand final day, have lived up to the hype.

Throughout a stop-start season as the league was forced to endure lockdown standstills that cost it four rounds, the Cats won all 12 of their games and boasted an average winning margin of 92 points.

To further illustrate their dominance, their season-ending percentage of 338.9 is easily the highest in the league according to Addy records back to 1980, with Colbinabbin's 291.1 in 1999 a distant second.

"I'm really happy and proud of the way the boys handled the year with the ups and downs of playing one week and then not knowing if you'd be playing the next," Collins said on Friday.

"If anyone was to tell you they thought this year was easy, they are kidding themselves.

"The uncertainty around the season at times made it tough to get the guys up week in, week out, so I think it says something about the group we've got that we were able to perform the way we did throughout.

"Fortunately, we've got a group that is mature enough to roll with it, but I imagine for a really young team like Leitchville, it would have been tough going.

"It was a roller-coaster of a year, but we appreciate we got to play the games we did after missing all of last year. But it's obviously disappointing we didn't get the chance to play a finals series and show that we think we're the best side."

Such was the Cats' dominance of the 2021 season, the only team to get within seven goals of the ladder-leaders was Huntly (23 points) in round six.

The even spread of contributors for the Cats throughout the season was reflected in the side having eight players in the Addy top 35 player rankings - Jarod Bacon (No.4), Patrick Gardiner (No.11), Thomas Leech (No.17), Bart Phillips (No.21), Tom Holman (No.22), Tyler Phillips (No.31), Jeremy Mundie (No.32) and Jesse Collins (No.35).

"The boys executed our gamestyle really well, but it wasn't just one or two guys, it was the whole team and I think you'll find when we have our best and fairest count that it will be fairly close and that's the way I like it," Collins said.

"You don't want one or two standout players, you want a team of them and the boys have done a really good job."

While the Cats won't be officially recognised as premiers for their efforts this year, Collins says that won't dampen the club's celebrations when the players get the chance to get together and reflect on their unbeaten 2021 season.

"Absolutely we'll still be partying... we're still the premiers, it's just that it's got the word minor in front of it," Collins said.

The calling off of the HDFNL season leaves Colbinabbin again as the runners-up.

The Grasshoppers lost the league's previous grand final to North Bendigo by 36 points in 2019 before the 2020 season was called off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Had the HDFNL been able to get to a grand final day at Huntly on September 18 the second-placed Grasshoppers would have been the team to take on the Cats for the flag.

"It's disappointing we weren't able to get a clear conclusion to the season, but we understand it's no-one's fault," Colbinabbin coach Julian Bull said.

"Obviously having gone through two years of this it's hard for the players and the people involved who front up and put the work in, but it is what it is.

"In the end, it's only sport and there are a lot of people who have endured a lot worse than missing out on some games of sport, so you've got to weigh all that up.

"You look at small business owners and the people who can't work and make an income... you've got to think about those people rather than just the community sport side of things."

Colbinbbabin ends the 2021 season with a 9-3 record.

"We didn't start the year that well (3-3 after six games) because we were such a new team with a lot of new and younger players," Bull said.

"We lost our three games early on and then kept getting better, so I'm really proud of the effort all the boys put in."

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