Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 5 August 1950, page 15


Hiciiifeosici Valley is strong

By PERCY TAYLOR

The Diamond Valley lie-ague ,is iime of the most successful'of the foot Dall

organisations in ? and around the suburban area.

Not only is it strong in it. self, but it plays a good

brand of football, and has contributed some notable players to senior clubs.

Three players reared within two miles of each other in the district, reached the highest pinnacle in win-ning the Brownlow Medal for best and fairest in the V.F.L.

They were Sid Coventry (Col-lingwood) who won in 1927; Stan Judkins (Richmond), in 1930; and Dr. Don Cordner (Mel- bourne), in 1946.

Eltham, the leading team, is coached by H. Downing, a former player, and captained by G.

Hunter.

It is a small, nippy, and welltrained team excelling in the playon style and if it has a weakness it is in the lack of big men.

R. Clarke is captain-coach of Heidelberg (second) which is splendidly balanced, with strong forwards, particularly Sheahan (centre half-forward) and Harvey (full forward).

A. Stott, late of Heidelberg, is non-playing coach of Heidelberg West, which is third on the list. J. Hughes is.the captain.

It lias a big side, excelling in the air. which was a feature of its play enabling it to defeat Eltham, the leaders,, early in the

season.

Fourth on the list is Mont-morency, with Phil'Ryan, late of Collingwood, as captain-coach.

Individually it is strong, which indicates that with the introduc-tion of teamwork it would seri-ously worry the teams above it. .

Actually, lhere is little between the first four teams, and a great fight is likely before the premier-ship is won.

Leading1 kicker

W. Harvey, of Heidelberg, is the leading goal kicker with 64 goals. Next to him is K. Boyle, of Eltham, with 53 goals.

The other teams appear on the premiership ladder in the followmg order:

Diamond Creek (G. Heddle, captain), Lakeside Rovers (W. Condick, captain), Templestowe (D. Dempster, captain), Greens-borough (A. Montfort, captain, J. Twyford, late of Richmond, nonplaying coach), Epping (H. Waters, captain), and Macleod (C. ?'Bowler, captain).

1 The League is affiliated with

the V.J.F.U., and hard working delegates aie proud of the fact that the League is self-main-tained and not sponsored by any 'other body. li