Simon Maddox (pictured) has led Echuca to football and cricket dynasties alongside partner in crime Curtis Townrow.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
Simon Maddox and Curtis Townrow would have to be the envy of a lot of sportspeople.
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Those who have spent a lifetime pursuing a premiership in their chosen sport or sports, but have been denied the utter thrill of it.
Echuca sportsmen Maddox and Townrow defy the average sportsperson when it comes to winning flags in their sporting pursuits.
If Echuca Football Club can win this year’s Goulburn Valey League premiership they will have played or been involved in eight successive flag winning teams.
Yes eight.
Premiership number seven came recently when they shared in Echuca Cricket Club’s fourth successive Goulburn Murray Cricket John McMahon Shield triumph.
The wins have been a bit more special for Maddox as he has had leadership roles with six of these flag-winning cricket and football teams.
He has captained three of the four successive cricket premiership sides and the last three footy premierships he has been co-coach with former Carlton star Andrew Walker.
An Echuca local since he was 15 and a natural leader Maddox said he enjoyed and respected leadership roles.
He admitted he had been ‘‘a bit lucky’’ in enjoying the incredible success he has had, but is a keen fan of an age old theory ‘‘the harder you work, the luckier you get’’.
‘‘When you take something on and people have entrusted you in a leadership role you have to give it 100 per cent,“ he said.
The last four cricket premierships are not the only time he has savoured flag wins with Echuca Cricket Club.
Curtis Townrow in action for Echuca.
Photo by
Bruce Povey
There were another six prior to the latest four-in-a-row feat.
Any of these 10 flag wins stand out for Maddox?
‘‘They are all good, but I remember one grand final win against Tongala when we were in the Echuca Cricket Association that was a bit special,“ he said.
“Tonny had a great side with Jamie Murphy and the likes, so it was a pretty satisfying win.”
Can Echuca equal GVL history by winning four premierships in a row?
Only one current club, Shepparton, has done it.
It strung together four successive premiership wins in the Tom Hafey era from 1963-66.
Meanwhile, Rushworth achieved a four-peat during its time in the GVL, snaring flags from 1930-33, while also claiming the 1935 premiership.
‘‘We have lost some good players from last season, but we have some good young players coming through to take their places and how far they step up will determine how far we will go,’’ Maddox said.
Townrow is the only other Echuca sportsman to parallel Maddox’s current cricket and football success story.
Echuca after its latest premiership victory in 2024, beating Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley League grand final.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
The Echuca school teacher has been in all three football premiership wins as well as the four flags in cricket, so also has enough sporting success and memories to last him a lifetime.
· Although not quite matching the records of Maddox and Townrow, Waaia sportsmen Mitch Cleeland and Jesse Trower are also on premiership rolls.
They have been members of the past three successive Picola District Football League flags Waaia has won and in the season just completed helped guide Waaia Cricket Club to its first flag in Cricket Shepparton’s premier competition the Haisman Shield.
Trower has been captain of Waaia in its premiership wins and Cleeland captained its premiership winning cricket side.
Next up in Gus Underwood’s Freakish Sporting Feats will be a spotlight on a club that won eight out of a possible nine netball flags in a single season.
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