‘Underdog’: The Shepparton Gators story documentary:
Underdog was the major video project for The News making it the first documentary produced by McPherson Media Group.
Producing the documentary was The News’ senior photographer Megan Fisher and journalist Jay Bryce.
Underdog follows the Shepparton Gators throughout their 2024 season, for what was their first time in the Big V Championship in two decades.
The documentary features interviews with Shepparton Gator players and those involved with the club and documents the team’s highs and lows, capturing the essence of what makes the Gators and their story so unique to the sporting community in Shepparton.
Following a successful launch of the documentary in mid-November, Underdog was released as three episodes across the end of November and early December.
Underdog also attracted the support from fans, Gator players and the widespread community alongside various sponsors who helped bring this project to life.
Watch episodes one, two and three here.
Council elections:
This year saw new councillors elected to the Greater Shepparton City Council and a new ward system implemented.
In the lead up to elections, The News ran a campaign which included a video explainer of the ward system and both written profiles and videos of each candidate talking about who they are what they wanted to bring to council if elected.
This was the first time Greater Shepparton was part of a ward system which consisted of nine wards, Balaclava, Pine Lodge, Yahna Gurtji, Goulburn River, Midland, Kialla, Lower Goulburn, McEwen and Poplar.
Sport action across the region:
As always, the 2024 sporting season was full of great moments and The News’ photographer Megan Fisher and Rechelle Zammit were often on the ground catching some footage from games and events.
Footage includes, action from the motorcross northern region series, Bendigo Amateur Soccer League, Victorian rugby premiership, wheelchair basketball and of course plenty of netball and football action across the different leagues which can be found below.
- Netball A-grade elimination finals PDFNL Strathmerton vs Tocumwal
- Round ten GVL and MFNL netball and football games
- GMWL round nine clash between Tatura and Rumbalara
- PDFNL football and netball grand finals
- KDL netball grand finals
- GVL netball grand finals
An interview with AFLW midfielder Georgia Nanscawen:
Essendon’s AFLW squad took a visit to Shepparton for a community camp in July this year.
The team travelled across the region that week delivering football clinics to different schools.
The News’ Tyler Maher got to have a chat with Essendon midfielder Georgia Nanscawen about the club’s visit to the area.
January floods:
Earlier this year, from January 10 to 12, moderate and minor flooding took place across the region.
The region saw moderate flooding in Undera, Bunbartha, Barmah, Murchison and Nagambie and minor flooding in Shepparton
The News journalists travelled around the area capturing footage of the flood damage in each area across January 11 to 12. Click below to watch what areas were covered in water.
- January 10 footage
- January 11 footage
- January 12 footage
Graham St and Goulburn Valley Hwy upgrade:
In 2022, then-Roads and Road Safety Minister Ben Carroll announced $700,000 to upgrade the intersection of Graham St and Goulburn Valley Hwy, including the installation of traffic lights.
This video explainer was published in late July and as of the current date of publishing, there no changes have been made since the announcement.
The News did an explainer on the situation.
Digging Deeper: A chat about sustainable fashion:
For one of the episodes of Digging Deeper, The News ran a video podcast with In My Closet co-founders, Aline Davies and Hilary Grigg.
Aline and Hilary started In My Closet, a second-hand clothing market where people can sell and buy clothes in person in spring of 2023.
Following great success, the pair then went on to run a summer, autumn, winter and spring market throughout 2024.
They chatted about how to make sustainable fashion choices, looking at the bigger picture when it comes to textile waste and how their In My Closet journey started.
Careers Day Out:
The News attended the Career’s Day Out at DECA on May 8 to May 9 speaking with students from across the region about what they want to do when they leave school.
The News captured some highlights from the day.
GVL game highlights:
The 2024 GVL football season saw some top action across the region.
Relive some of the top moments from the 2024 GVL footy season, thanks to GVL Data footage, here.