Moree’s Jack Montgomery is an AFL star in the making.
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The 15-year-old Moree Suns player has been recognised for his potential on the football field, receiving the AFLNW NSW Rising Star award at the conclusion of the 2017 grand final matches on Saturday, September 9.
After a stellar first season of AFL, Montgomery’s coach Dwayne Macey said there’s no-one in the competition who deserves the honour more than Jack.
“That rising star award is voted on across all the league; I don’t think they would have picked anyone else,” he said.
“It’s Jack’s first year playing AFL. He’s come into the game and stamped his authority pretty quickly.
“For a kid that’s never played AFL before, he’s a star of the future.
“He’s loving football.
“He does a great job in [the ruck] for us. He can kick a football for a mile too.”
In July this year the ruckman represented AFLNW NSW at the Northern Carnival.
Montgomery’s award was a silver lining on what was a disappointing day for the Moree Suns juniors, who lost their grand final match to the Inverell Saints.
The Saints were just too good for the Suns on the day, defeating them 19.14-128 to 7.6-48.
“There were some broken hearts at the end of it, it was very disappointing,” Macey said of the loss. “The boys tried their best and they played well all season.”
Macey said his boys did nothing wrong, Inverell were just the better team on the day, although being short on players certainly didn’t help the Moree side.
“We didn’t switch on early enough and they got an early jump in the second half and we couldn’t recover from there,” he said.
“We only had 16 players, they had 22. They had subs coming on and off. We just ran out of legs. [The boys] played their guts out. They were stumped when they came off at the end. They gave their 110 per cent.”
Macey said Daniel Brown, Tyson Green, Jack Montgomery and Nick Fisher should especially be commended.
“They didn’t stop all day,” he said.
Macey said the boys still deserve to be congratulated on a top season, having only lost two games besides the grand final all year.
The juniors now have their sights set on rebuilding and being better next year.
Macey would like to thank all the club’s sponsors, particularly B and W Rural who have been the juniors’ sponsor for the past two years.
“A big thank you to them and to all the volunteers and parents,” he said. “We wouldn’t have been able to get to the grand final if it wasn’t for the mums and dads.”