Football
11 July, 2025
Laharum meet rising Kalkee
Laharum will be wary of a fresh and improved Kalkee side in men’s senior football when the two sides meet this Saturday for round 13 of the Horsham District Football Netball League.
The Demons are fourth on the league ladder with seven wins and four losses, while Kalkee are seventh, climbing the ladder in recent rounds on the back of a four-game win streak.
Coming off a round 12 bye, Kalkee’s last game was a resounding 133-55 victory over Taylors Lake, their best game of the season.
Conversely, Laharum enter Saturday having suffered their first loss since round six, going down to 2024 premiers Harrow Balmoral 84-44 in round 12.
Laharum defeated Kalkee 94-26 in their round one game, but Shannon Argall, co-coach of Laharum, acknowledges that Kalkee are a quality side who have the home-ground advantage.
“They’re a good team, and they’ve strung a few together,” Argall said.
“Earlier on in the season, they were impacted by injuries, but they've won a few now, and they're certainly not one that we take lightly.”
“They’ve got more seasoned veterans, rucks like Luke Byrne and Doug Grining, their on-ball brigade, like Zavier Hobbs, Matt Nield is prolific with the ball.
“They also have young guns like Isaiah Adams and Aiden Richardson, so they’ve got a good balance that we won’t take for granted, especially playing at Kalkee.”
Argall identified a strong history and rivalry between the clubs as being extra motivation for both sides.
“There’s a healthy rivalry between the two clubs, including many grand finals played against each other,” Argall said.
“It doesn’t matter where the sides are in respect to the ladder, both teams thrive playing against each other.”
Despite their loss last weekend, Argall takes the loss as an opportunity to learn as the side builds towards finals time.
“We’re a bit disappointed, but we take solace in the fact that Harrow had the Close boys return, and we were missing five or six players that are very impactful,” Argall said.
“It was a chance to have a look at them and some of their setups from the way they played.
“We continue to learn, and we know if we get all of our players back on the park and we play a style of footy that we're training for, we know we can pull anything off.”