Carlson Cantela has a long way to go to match the feats of legendary football star Malcolm Blight, but the goal he scored this week shows he has at least one of the qualities required.
All football loving fans fondly remember Plate's stunning goal after the siren to win North Melbourne's match against Carlton at Princes Park in 1976.
Last weekend, Cantela, a 19-year-old ruckman from the Tiwi Bombers, who also played for Essendon's VFL side, took a leaf out of Blight's book with a crazy bomb from inside the center square that scored the most points.
As the video above shows, the similarities between the two goals are uncanny, right down to the running and trajectory of the ball.
While Cantela's goal did not win the game for his side (they were 93 points behind at the time), it was done with a heavy ball in Dewey Darwin conditions and we believe it amounted to a brutal Plate kick.
Possible Boomer return
Speaking of former North Melbourne and AFL legends, it was great to hear this week that AFL games record holder Brent “Boomer” Harvey refuses to rule out a shock return to the sport he clearly loves.
Last year, Harvey made headlines when he suffered a horrific broken leg and had to wait almost an hour for an ambulance to arrive, while playing local football for North Heidelberg in the Northern Football League in Melbourne.
At the time, many thought that would be the end of a career that included 432 matches at the top level.
However, Harvey, who turns 46 in May, revealed this week that he will play some Masters matches for a touring team in Croatia and Bali in October, while also considering a return to competition matches at domestic level.
“I'm not 100 per cent sure how that (return) will look at the moment. After 12 months of playing football, I've realized how much I love the game,” Harvey said.
“I have a saying I like to live by which is 'never say never' so we might as well stick with that. I know there will be opportunities for me to play games here and there, so we'll see what happens.
Happy local deal for Mecca
On the subject of former greats unexpectedly returning to home teams, it was a huge surprise to see Australian men's national cricket coach Andrew McDonald outsmart the Whites in Geelong last weekend.
Originally listed as a 'fill-in' on the team sheet, the man known as Ronald came out in the middle order for Geelong West in the fifth grade and quickly made a comfortable 62 in his side's easy win.
One could be forgiven for thinking that opposition players might have been a little annoyed at having a former Test player opposing them in fifth-grade cricket in the suburbs, but that was not the case according to South Barwon's Dave Pollock.
“We didn't know Andrew was playing but we all appreciated the opportunity to get on the cricket field with him,” Pollock said.
“Our guys loved the opportunity to play against Andrew and enjoyed and appreciated the way he played the game.
“Very nice man.”
The worst possible timing of injury
Fortunately, MacDonald emerged unscathed from his weekend cricket, which is more than we can say for Preston's Amit Choudhury who may take home the award for worst injury of the year.
Picture the scene: one ball to go, three runs required to win with Choudhary at the non-striker's end as he faces teammate Denis Maratos.
Maratos can only hit the ball as far as midfield while the batting pair rush in to try to run the two needed to tie the game.
Unfortunately, as the amazing video shows, Choudhury did his best to get to the other end of the field before falling back and couldn't even turn around to start the second round, thus handing one win to his rival Taylor Lakes.
The Gaza saga continues
It wouldn't be a local sports weekly cover without a reference to the soap opera surrounding Adelaide's Gaza Football Club which was found guilty of cheating the salary cap system over many years.
Ahead of Tuesday's hearing which is likely to hand down tough sanctions, which could lead to the club's termination, there have been further developments this week with president Don Rosella sensationally resigning.
Rosella was clearly not a quiet person, as she was keen to let everyone know what he really thought about everything that had happened.
“They pushed me to join the committee and become a sponsor because the club needed money – they wanted me to help but then when things got bad they turned on me,” Rosella parroted.
“I never want you to step foot into a place where they shake your hand and then get stabbed in the back.”
Emerging Athlete Star of the Week
Our vote this week goes to 15-year-old snooker star Jason Yeo from Darwin.
Just a few days after celebrating his birthday, Yu not only won the national snooker championship in his age group (for the second year in a row), but he also successfully beat players much older than him and also captured the national under-18 title.
Quote of the week
“Just let the kids play,” pleaded Melbourne mother Amy Carrick when she heard her son's under-10 AFL competition at Essendon District Football League was considering introducing a rule that would only allow standing tackles while also planning to stop awarding goal kicks and best and fairest awards.
Originally published as Miraculous NTFL goal rekindles memories of the classic AFL winning moment of all time
