The BFC will have a playing list of 21 in the VFL this year, with 10 spots still up for grabs.

At this stage, the players who have officially signed with the BFC are Justin Maddern, Matthew Little, Sam Vale, Josh Freezer, Ben Duscher, Jordan Williams, Brad Collins, Steven Stroobants and Wayne Schultz.

Although they haven’t put pen to paper yet, new Essendon development coach and 2008 Hawthorn premiership player Rick Ladson and last year’s co-captain Trent Shinners have both committed to the club.

The BFC has had 45 players training with it during the pre-season, with the group split into Bendigo and Melbourne-based training squads.

“We need to have our list finalised by the middle of March,” BFC general manager Graham Pratt said yesterday.

“We’ve got an intra-club match at Kyneton on Friday night that’s going to go a long way towards determining the balance of the numbers.

“The intra-club match will be a mix of our Melbourne and Bendigo-based groups playing each other, so I’d like to think we’ll have a pretty good handle on who is and isn’t going to be on the list by the end of it.”

The intra-club match will be played at the Kyneton Showgrounds from 6pm.

“With about 10 spots still up for grabs, we think that’s a good position for us to be in at this stage,” Pratt said.

“The reality is we’ve signed all the players from last year that we wanted to keep.

“Of course, it would have been nice to keep the boys who got drafted, but they’ve gone on to bigger and better things, which we’re really happy for.

“But we think we’ve still get enough spots left open to make sure we have the flexibility to ensure we have some kids out of the Bendigo Pioneers on board, as well as any other good players that could be in the mix.

“It’s looking positive and we’d like to think we’re going to have a pretty good squad.”