The Courier |
JASON McNamara will lead the Ballarat Football League into battle as captain for the first time on Saturday, as the BFL takes on Bendigo in the AFL Victoria Country Championships.
McNamara was unveiled as the BFL skipper at a combined press conference yesterday, having taken over from Dan Jordan, who will lead this year’s squad as vice-captain.
The North Ballarat City captain and reigning Henderson Medallist will head a relatively inexperienced BFL side into battle, in the rematch of the 2009 interleague match.
Although the final side will be named at the final training session tonight, Ballarat is likely to field just two players from the 2009 losing side – Jordan and Sunbury’s Brett Chambers.
Since then, Ballarat has lost two of its three matches and Bendigo has won two of its three.
Ranked fifth and sixth respectively, the winning team will be ranked among the top four leagues in country Victoria.
Speaking at the press conference yesterday, Jordan said the importance of the match was not lost on his players.
“We really want to start getting some respect back as a competition and there is no better challenge than Bendigo,” he said.
“Some of these boys will never play on a higher level than this game.
“For a lot of these guys it will be the epitome of their footballing career.”
With head coach Ben Jordan unavailable for the press conference yesterday, assistant coach Gary Learmonth said selection had leaned towards fielding a younger, faster side than previous years.
Learmonth said Ballarat’s strength had always been its ability to win the contested ball, but felt there was a need for an injection of speed and youth.
“We think we’ve got a good mix of outside players,” he said.
“We think the guys we’ve picked are in some good form.
“I think we’ve got the leg speed to go with Bendigo this time, which we probably didn’t have last time.”
Bendigo coach Jeff Brennan conceded his side would probably go in as underdog, although he felt both sides were very similar.
“I don’t think there is a lot between us, there is one day and you’ve just got to get it together on the one day,” he said.
“If you had money, you’d put it on Ballarat, I wouldn’t put it on Bendigo.”
Ballarat will hold its jumper presentation ceremony along with the final training session tonight.
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