Sport
17 September, 2024
BEST ON GROUND: Natte Bealiba's Will Cameron
A stellar first season at Natte Bealiba from Will Cameron culminated in a stunning best-on-ground performance from a man who arrived from Minyip-Murtoa over the off-season desperate to prove a point.
Since his move from South Australia into Victoria in 2022, Cameron was only able to put together 18 games — nine with Wickliffe Lake Bolac in the Mininera and District Football League, and another nine with Minyip-Murtoa in the Wimmera Football Netball League.
In those 18 games, he had been named in the best eight times. The talent was always there.
But this season, despite missing five games, Cameron was superb in just about every one of those 14 games.
He was named in the best on 11 occasions, including all three of their finals, showcasing everything we’ve come to learn about him in 2024 — his stunning field kicking, his ability to extract the ball out of the midfield, and his forward nous which sees him hit the scoreboard.
Nineteen goals, including the final goal of the season with a stunning curling effort, was the cherry on top.
Ask the man himself, and he’ll tell you how much he was able to enjoy playing at his best this season.
“It was good. It’s a joy to play with all the boys. We implemented the way we wanted to play throughout the year, and that helped us only lose one game for the season, and a premiership, so I can’t complain in my first year,” Cameron said.
“We’ve put in the hard work with a good pre-season, and it helped us throughout the year.”
Cameron’s effort allowed him to be in the very first league team of the year, while he also polled a very credible 15 votes in the Berry Powell Medal count.
“I missed five games for the year, so considering how I went, I was pretty proud of that,” he said.
For a man who has now put together 150 games of football, he says Trent Mortlock has helped mould his game even more this season.
“Trent is an unreal coach. He has taught me heaps in one year,” he said.
Mortlock returns the favour.
“His work inside the midfield, getting the footy out, he’s just so strong, and he has a lethal foot. He gets forward and he’s been an amazing pickup. His work was fantastic.”
Cameron spoke about the need to lock the Trentham midfield down, saying it was the outside running battle which determined Natte’s fate on Saturday.
“Trentham are an outstanding team. Their midfield has plenty of big bodies in there, so we had to lock down and catch them on the outside, which we did. We used our run and carry, which worked a lot,” he said.
At the end of it all, like so many around the club, Cameron is enthused about the potential the club has in the future.
“It’s exciting, we have a young team and our midfield is young, so there’s plenty more to develop and work on, so it’s good times for Natte, that’s for sure,” he said.
“The likes of Harcourt, Lexton and Trentham are good teams. We have a good junior development program in place, so it’s exciting for all the juniors to come up and play some senior footy. I’m looking forward to it.”