{"id":573340,"date":"2026-03-30T03:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T03:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/573340\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T03:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T03:05:16","slug":"tigers-launch-2026-season-midland-express","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/573340\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers launch 2026 season | Midland Express"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>KFNC secretary Ash O’Gara, president Julie Priestley and vice-president Emily Dellios. Photo: Lachie Bolitho <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking ahead to the future, and the 2026 season promises to be a very good one for Kyneton Football Netball Club,\u201d new Tigers\u2019 president Julie Priestley said at the conclusion of numerous activities at a very busy season launch at the Showgrounds.<\/p>\n

A committee member for the past seven years, Julie took over the vacant presidential role earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Julie comes from a local family with a long association with the Kyneton club.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad John O\u2019Flaherty is a life member, and my brothers Brendon and Shaun played in the club\u2019s football premiership sides back in 1997 (Brendon in the senior side and Shaun in the Under 18s).<\/p>\n

\u201cMy younger brother Matthew has also played senior football at Kyneton and myself netball for a few seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club has always been a big part of my life, a place I\u2019m extremely passionate about and I\u2019m excited to help lead this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s president Guy Nelson did not seek re-election at the Tigers\u2019 annual meeting, and the position was only filled when Julie decided to step up earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge, but something I\u2019m looking forward to. We have a committee of very capable people in various positions who are also giving up their time and expertise to make our family orientated club successful,\u201d Julie told the Express.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s volunteers as well as players who are really important in clubs like ours \u2026. and fielding teams wearing the yellow and black has a very long and proud history in Kyneton.\u201d <\/p>\n

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s activities, which included various entertainments, a senior football practise match and get-together of netballers, also led to a welcome increase in the number of members who have signed up for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Early Bird member prices are still available until Friday on our website, so I urge anyone who loves coming to the Showgrounds, to get on board and buy a membership,\u201d Julie said.<\/p>\n

Ethan Foreman is again the playing coach of Kyneton\u2019s senior football side, which is expected to be a strong contender for the Riddell League finals.<\/p>\n

David Nolte is head of football, with Brandon Spurr the Reserves coach, and Adam Cook in charge of the Under 19.5s. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur FIDA team is again being led by Peter Connor, and they kick their season off on Sunday at the Showgrounds to begin the quest of winning back-to-back premierships,\u201d Julie said of the club\u2019s all-abilities football team who won their first premiership last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur junior footballers celebrated their jumper presentations last week and are training strongly ahead of the season, which kicks off after Easter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a real sense of excitement and enthusiasm across all teams and we\u2019re looking forward to a positive season for the club,\u201d said Emily Dellios who is again the head of junior football and vice-president this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur junior program is blossoming, with five teams across U11-U17 enjoying their dress presentation last week ahead of their grading matches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing and developing our structures in the junior space has been a huge focus in the off-season to ensure we nurture our home-grown talents in the yellow and black dress for years to come,\u201d said Loryn Savoia who again is the head of netball for 2026. <\/p>\n

Returning head coach David O\u2019Hare is coaching the A to C Grades this season with Alisha Turner returning for D Grade and club secretary, Ash O\u2019Gara and A Grade player Matilda Candy leading the U19s netball team. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are disappointed that our new netball courts will not be ready for round one and we are working closely with the league and the council to facilitate what changes we need to make for the start of the season. The new netball changes rooms are fantastic, and we can\u2019t wait to be able to use all our new facilities, hopefully sooner rather than later,\u201d Julie said. <\/p>\n

Good Friday kicks off the KFNC senior men\u2019s football and netball season against Woodend and it\u2019s shaping up to be a massive day at The Showgrounds.<\/p>\n

\"\"The new KFNC committee: Back row \u2013 Scott Lawson, Loryn Savoia, Emily Dellios, Ash O\u2019Gara. Front Row \u2013 David Nolte, Julie Priestley, Shae Mills. Photo: Lachie Bolitho<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KFNC secretary Ash O’Gara, president Julie Priestley and vice-president Emily Dellios. Photo: Lachie Bolitho \u201cWe\u2019re looking ahead to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,210134,85],"class_list":["post-573340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-kyneton-football-netball-club","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}