Soaring with the Eagles – the Hewett bros

This week country football writer Peter Argent shines a light on the Hewett clan and the mighty Broughton Mundoora Football Club.

The Port Broughton and Mundoora Wokurna football clubs amalgamated in 1984 to become the Eagles.

Former Sturt dual premiership champion of the 1970s, Trevor Sims – a local farmer who travelled to Unley for over a decade playing 250 SANFL league games – was a key player in the first few years and helped engineer the Eagles to a flag in ‘85 and ’86 (after a tie in the first Grand Final in the second year).

There are a number other strong family names at the club, among them the Ireland brothers and Bowley clan. Brett Ireland, a local publican who is well-known through the community as ‘BI’, took the Eagles to the 2006 title.

The Hewett name is also synonymous with Broughton Mundoora Wokurna FC.

With his three younger siblings all making names for themselves in the game, Nick Hewett has now taken over the reins as senior coach at the family hometown club of Broughton Mundoora Football Club in season 2019.

At just 28 years of age, Nick has entered the senior coaching ranks in country football, having coached reserves last year.

A school teacher at Kadina Memorial High School, Nick Hewett spent three years from 2013 with the Bordertown Roosters in the expansive Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara League.

Nick played in the Eagles’ 2006 premiership team in only his mid-teens and captained the club for a handful of seasons before heading to Bordertown.

The second oldest in the Hewett clan is William, 24, who, after a year abroad in 2018, has returned home to the Broughton Mundoora Eagles for its current campaign in the Northern Areas Football Association.

Will played a critical role in the thrilling 2016 Broughton Mundoora victory over Crystal Brook at Gladstone Oval, following a season at the Ponderosa in 2015 under Central District senior coach Roy Laird.

Famously, in that Northern Areas season decider, the Eagles were 17 points down with two and a half minutes remaining and found a way to kick three goals to snatch premiership glory.

Meanwhile George Hewett, 23, has etched out a career at AFL level with the Sydney Swans as no-nonsense and hard-working on-baller. George, pick 32 in the 2013 AFL draft, has played 78 matches and kicked 30 goals thus far in his career.

The youngest of the four brothers, 22-year-old Cameron, is currently a third-year rookie on the Power list and playing in the SANFL Statewide Super League for Port Adelaide Magpies.

“It would be great if one day the four Hewett brothers could play in the same team, but we may now have to wait for Masters’ footy,” Nick said.

“There’s a strong family connection at our club, not only my family but a number of others in the district.

“It is a close community club and the football and netball teams are a central part of the community during the winter months.”

Captain Tom Button, also a quality representative player for the NAFA in the Landmark Cup and Northern Zone in the SA Country Football Championships, is a longtime servant and travels from town to play with his home club each week, as well as taking regular trainings for players in the city.

“We have brought into the club this year Billy Hayes – brother of Maddy Hayes, who has played for us for the past couple of years, Gene Robinson, who played a little bit of footy with Crows and Hamish Nitschke from Millicent.  We’re hopeful of being pretty competitive this year,” Nick said.