AVSL Round 9 Glenhuntly - 21 Feb 2026
We had a great turnout for Round 10 with 24 athletes competing across 54 events. That's as many as we had for our Powerplay in R6, and we scored our second highest points for the season 16,028 (just behind Powerplay). We filled a record 3 relay teams and there were 25 season PB's from our 54 events. We were amazing.
The only problem was Corio. We were 2 points behind them on the ladder and needed to beat them to give us a chance to avoid relegation. We were at our two closest venues Glenhuntly and Doncaster, we had our top 13 athletes all available, and we were entered in 70 events to their 50. So I was pretty confident we'd clean them up yesterday. But somehow they managed to just beat us again.
So how did Corio beat us when we entered so many more events.
- On the day we had 24 athletes in 54 scoring events compared to their 21 athletes in 40 scoring events.
- But their athletes are good. We scored an average 283 points per event compared to their 349. They had 5 scores of over 400 points to our 1, and 28 scores of over 300 compred to our 21.
- They supplied 5 officials providing them an extra 2,000 points. It makes sense to reward officials who volunteer their time all day to keep our sport running. We used to get points for Yvonne, but she's retired now. The points they get each are less than a good athlete doing a couple of events, so it seems pretty fair. Both Corio and WAM also got the 5% helper bonus for providing helpers during the season.
- Corio really lifted for Round 9. That was their best score for the season by 2,000 points. Like us they must have rallied to get everyone out.
- Overall they beat us by 723 points, which is not a lot. Just a couple of good events. But hats off to them, they were just too good for us on the day.
So can we still avoid relegation?
- We're now 4 points behind Corio. Because they have more season ponts, we would need to finish 5 places ahead of them in Round 10. This is unlikely?
- We're still 4 points ahead of Yarra Ranges, but they have their Powerplay in hand, which gets played by default in R10. In R8 they scored 20,912 points and finished 3rd. If they do something like that in R10, they would score 14 more points than us, and the 4 point buffer won't be nearly enough. But if they don't really turn up like they did in R9, then we could finish ahead of them.
So relegation to Div 4 next year is looking likely, where we would be one of the top teams. But anything can happen. Theoretically we're still a chance in R10 to avoid relegation and should give it our very best shot. Entries for R10 at Casey Fields and Aberfendie are open (close Wednesday midday). So let's get everyone out. Please enter if you haven't already. Details are at:
https://athsvic.org.au/events/avsl-round-10/
We also need to fill a helper duty in R10 at Casey Field. Ideally I'd like to split this into three 2 hour shifts. Thanks to Harvs and Julian for offering to help. If someone else can help out, please let me know at waverley.jamesa@gmail.com.
But back to some of our highlights for Round 9:
- Impressively we filled three 4x400m relay teams. Thanks to all who ran. Most of you did heaps of other events, and quite a few were doing 3k's or 5k's afterwards. The overall points were close and we picked up 512 points from relays. These points could just have made the difference.
- James McEniry scored an amazing 1,244 points, with a superhuman 459 points from his 2:13 800m. He had to chase Arun to catch him near the line, after Arun had a good lead with 200m to go and looked uncatchable. He also leapt a season pb in the high jump at 1.50m. Not bad for a 50+ middle distance runner.
- Christine Bridle scored 1,125 points, close to her season best. She is dominating our season points ladder this season. She also threw a season pb discus
- Ryan Bentley scored 1,010 points smashing his season PB's in the 200m, 800m and 3k. What a day out. Ryan is now second in the season points ladder.
- Linda Buttigieg with 957 points, consoldating 3rd in the season points ladder
- Impressively we had 12 shot putters, 10 runners in the 800m (represented in most heats), 10 runners in the 3K/5K, 8 runners in the 200m and 8 discus throwers.
- We had 25 season PB's (too many to mention them all), but some big ones:
- Shot put: Shane 13.91 (WAM season leading), Greg 29.97 (Waverley record M40+), Simone 6.61 (all time PB)
- Discus: Jack A 40.08 (WAM season leading)
- Hammer: Simone 21.29 (all time PB)
- 800m: Ryan 2:06 (WAM season leading), Nick 2:38 (Season pb by over 20 seconds)
- 3K: Amy 10:49 (WAM season leading) and Ryan 10:31
- 5K: Gerard 20:20 (season PB by over 30 seconds)
- Our fastest runners (in events with 2 or more) were:
Male: 200m Ryan 25.10, 800m Ryan 2:06, 3000m Ryan 10:31, 3000m Walk Andrew Duncan 17:35
- Our best field events:
Male: Discus: Jack A 40.08, Shot put: Shane 13.91
Female: 200m Christine 35.39, 3000m Amy 10:49, Discus Linda 19.80, Shot put Linda 7.65
Results are online and usually up within 15 minutes of finishing an event at:
https://athsvic.resultshub.com.au/#
A summary of our team results is attached.
Go Waverley-Malvern
James
