Sports reports: Live-streaming pioneer shortlisted for SANFL award

Plus sporting competitions resume as restrictions ease and the latest from Murray Bridge Rifle Club.

Sports reports: Live-streaming pioneer shortlisted for SANFL award

This post includes contributions from the SA National Football League and Murray Bridge Rifle Club’s Daniel Irvine.

Shane Snell, right, has been nominated for an SANFL volunteer award. He is pictured with Ken Braun, Cameron Bleakley and Anthony Kittel. Photo: Redarc Electronics/Facebook.

Live streaming pioneer shortlisted for SANFL award

The River Murray Football League’s Shane Snell has been named one of eight finalists for the South Australian National Football League 2021 volunteer of the year award.

Snell organises a live stream and commentary for an RMFL match every week.

He spends 16 hours per week finding out information about each club for the broadcast, and edits and posts highlights and replays from each week’s game.

He designed and organised the construction of the league’s commentary box.

As a member of the league’s executive committee, he also helped write the league’s bylaws and constitution, and maintains its website and Facebook page.

He was previously a 300-game player with the Imperial Football Club and spent 25 years on its management committee, including a period as president.

An award winner will be announced at a ceremony at Adelaide Oval later this year.

Now in its fifth year, the SANFL award aims to highlight individuals who have provided outstanding voluntary service to community football in South Australia.

Ian Taylor scores for David McDonald on the weekend. Photo: Daniel Irvine.

Murray Bridge Rifle Club shoots through restrictions

Ten members turned up at the Deed Range in Monarto this week to take advantage of the decision that the club championship could resume.

The news was shared by SA Rifle Association executive officer Mark Tyler following confirmation from authorities.

The decision made sense, considering that the only difference between training and competition for a rifle club was that the scores were recorded at the end of the day.

Despite that good news, numbers were low due to a less-than-favourable weather forecast.

However, in the end we were able to complete this championship round at 1000 yards moments before the heavens opened and the rain came pouring down.

Before that, however, shooters were sorely tested in the blustery conditions, with winds fishtailing down range, flicking from left to right and making it almost impossible to read.

In fact, the only 50s that were scored this week were in F-class, which normally scores out of 60, and they were the better results.

The wind did square up from the right, making conditions slightly more bearable later in the shoot, but for most it was too little, too late.

One person who seemed relatively unaffected by conditions, however, was Andrew Heard, who shot a superb 96.04, including a 49.03 in his second round, to claim both the off-rifle and handicap prizes in target rifle for the day.

To put his effort into perspective, the next best shooters were multiple club championship winners Greg Traeger on 88.02 and Rob Paech on 87.04.

John Cranwell tries to make sense of the conditions. Photo: Daniel Irvine.

In F-class, no one was able to parallel Heard’s performance, with the best score off-rifle going to David McDonald with a 106.04 in F-open.

The score was also enough to give McDonald the handicap win for the day.

Close behind him was John Cranwell, also in F-open, with a score of 102; he was the only other F-class shooter to score more than 100 points.

One award that was hotly contested was, unsurprisingly, the Magpie Award, with few escaping having a bird recorded on their scorecards.

This week the honours were taken out by Frank Marshall in F-class, with an impressive five birds, and Daniel Irvine, who also scored five birds to take out the prize ahead of A-graders Paech, four, and Traeger, three.

Next week, assuming nothing changes, the club will shoot from 500 metres.

They’re a COVID safe lot at Murray Bridge Rifle Club. Photo: Daniel Irvine.

Murray Bridge News is happy to share news, results or photos from sporting clubs throughout Murray Bridge and the surrounding region, free of charge. Email peri@murraybridge.news or call 0419 827 124.

You can help keep local stories like this one free for everyone to read. Subscribe to Murray Bridge News today and support your independent, locally owned news service, plus get access to exclusive stories you won’t find anywhere else, for just $5.50 a month.