By JESSE GRAHAM
THE Mail had some unexpected visitors on Monday, as members from the Healesville Division Two Football Team dropped by during their Mad Monday celebrations.
Their celebrations come off the back of wins for both the Healesville Seniors and Reserves Division Two teams against Seville in the grand finals on Saturday.
Tom Bateman and Tom Coy from the reserves team visited the Mail’s Healesville office on Monday afternoon dressed up after spending Sunday evening and Monday morning celebrating with the team.
Mr Bateman said he felt rapt with the wins for Healesville over the weekend and that they were a step towards getting the Division Two team back to Division One.
“We got dropped from Division One last year,” he said.
“I’ve been retired for two years, so I decided to come back and play.
“From the start, we said that no matter what happens over the year, we’re getting back to Division One.”
Mr Bateman said that he had scored eight goals in the finals match, while Coy had dealt 11 tackles to Seville team members.
He said that the teams had visited the Terminus Hotel, the Healesville Football Club Rooms, the RSL and the Grand Hotel as part of their celebrations, and that about 40 members of the club had taken part.
Both Mr Bateman and Mr Coy said the win was good for the town and good news for the football club.
Matt Fraraccio, Josh Goding and Jack Nugent from the Seniors team also visited, to show off their outfits and medals from the season.
Josh Goding was sporting the Mitch Hay best on ground medal he earned during the finals match.
The Seniors team, which had only lost one match in the season, defeated Seville by 46 points on Saturday in their clash at Yarra Junction Football Ground, scoring 18.18 (126) to Seville’s score of 12.8 (80).
The Reserves team had been beaten by Seville twice during this year’s season, but managed to come out of the match leading by 54 points, with Healesville on 13.12 (90) to Seville’s 5.6 (36).
For the full report on the matches and photographs from the grand final clash, turn to the Sports pages.
