2014 Season

2014

The Club Executive Committee was reappointed again in 2014. President: Brendan Anderson, VP: Mark Leonard, Treasurer: Glenn Stevens, Secretary: Ross Twyford. Chris Dynes was appointed Supers Coach, Troy Arnott was appointed Masters Coach and Mark Leonard was appointed Legends Coach. Preseason Training began in November 2013 after Melbourne Cup day. Previous Supers coach Shane Mottram resigned as coach prior to Xmas 2013 and Chris was appointed in February 2014. We trained at Mace Oval in Mt Martha until our return to Alexandra Park in Mornington. We again had 3 trainers with Asha Powell and Lauren Deveney returning and the addition of Paula Harry.

The makeup of the AFLM Vic Metro Divisions changed again for 2014. The North/South Zones were scrapped and Division 1 & 2 returned. Premier Division remained. The Raiders went into Division 1. It is a division that has 11 teams with Supers and Masters Teams. It has: Raiders, Bayside, Carrum, Mordialloc, Cranbourne, Mordialloc, Parkdale, Dingley, Brunswick, Western Kangaroos and Laurimar. The first 6 of those were in South Zone in 2013 with Dingley returning and Western Kangaroos, Brunswick and Laurimar added. Dingley and Parkdale will be fielding Masters teams for the first time. We have 11 rounds, 10 games and a Bye in Rd3. 5 Home games, 5 Away games and 6 Triple Headers. The Legends age minimum was altered from Over 47 to Over 45 in 2014. There will also be an Over 50 Division which at the present time has only 4 teams: Williamstown, Diamond Valley, Carrum Cowboys and Eastern Warriors. Division 2 is made up of 1 team clubs. The League also required a new registration system for 2014 in line with the requirements of the AFL and FoxSportingPulse.

The Raiders played a Practice game against Carrum Cowboys at Carrum on Sunday the 23rd of March. We played Supers game at noon then a combined Masters/Legends game after that.

At our Rd4, 31st of May home games against Eastern(Legends) and Carrum(Masters & Supers) the club held a Ladies day. There was a Chicken and Champagne Luncheon for player Wives/Partners. We also hosted the Eastern v Carrum Over 50’s game at 9:30am which made the day a quadruple header.

During the season Tom Klingenspor played his 150th club game and Paul Clark, Peter Vaughan and Paul Harber played their 100th game for the club.

This was a season where we had a lot of injuries which meant that quite a few players doubled up in games more than any season previously. 7 players played 15 games or more. Leo Mete played 20 games including 3 in a day in Rd11. We had 2 broken ankles, a broken arm, a broken collar bone and multiple broken ribs as well as the usual strains, sprains, corkies and other assorted injuries.

The First’s(Supers) and Reserves(Masters) both made finals again with the Supers finishing 4th and Masters 3rd. Both teams played Semi Finals at Mordialloc but lost to Dingley (Supers) and Cranbourne (Masters) by 34pts.

Steve Taylor kicked 44 goals in the Masters team, bringing up his 100th club goal in Rd10 on the way to winning the Division 1 Reserves League Goal Kicking Award. Morgan Darrer was runner up in the Division 1 Reserves League Best & Fairest. Ross Twyford came 3rd in the Division 45’s League Best & Fairest.

At the club Best & Fairest Vote count, Matt Jacobs won the Supers B&F, Warwick Graham won the Masters B&F and Ross Twyford won the Legends B&F.

At the 2014 Presentation Night at Benitos in Mornington, Chris Dynes won the Best Clubman Award and Shane Turner and Troy Arnott were awarded Life Membership.