THE cream of central Victoria's footballing talent will be on show this weekend when the Bendigo, Heathcote District and Loddon Valley leagues all take to the field for representative matches.
The Bendigo Football League will clash with Gippsland in a twilight match at the Queen Elizabeth Oval from 5.45pm tomorrow night.
Inter-league football in Bendigo appears to have been given a new lease of life under coach Jeff Brennan after last year's stunning 21-point upset win over arch-rivals Ballarat at Bacchus Marsh.
Whereas last year Bendigo was forced to have league chief executive officer Steven Oliver come out of retirement at the age of almost 40 to make up the numbers, this year Brennan had a wealth of players make themselves available to pull on the Blue and Gold.
From a preliminary squad of 53 players released last month, that has been cut back to a final team of 23 to be captained by Eaglehawk's Brady Herdman.
The inter-league captaincy adds to an already impressive footballing resume for Herdman, who is a dual premiership player with Eaglehawk and was a VCFL representative in 2007.
Under the VCFL ratings, Bendigo is ranked eighth, while Gippsland _ which was last year belted by Mornington Peninsula Nepean by 83 points _ is at No.7.
The last time the Bendigo and Gippsland leagues met in a full-scale inter-league match was back in 1998 in division two of the VCFL Country Championships.
Coached by Derrick Filo, Bendigo went down by 17 points, 12.15 (87) to 10.10 (70).
Tomorrow's clash between Bendigo and Gippsland will be the culmination of an inter-league carnival gala day at the QEO.
Also on tomorrow's card will be a senior clash from 3pm between the Murray and Bellarine leagues, which are ranked at No.9 and 10.
There will also be three under-18 matches featuring Bendigo, Murray and Bellarine, starting from 11.05am.
For the first time, the Heathcote District Football League has been included in the VCFL Country Championships pool.
In the past the Country Championships have been the domain of the VCFL's 16 major leagues.
However, this year four district leagues have been added, with Heathcote one of them, along with Geelong, Horsham and Mallee.
Heathcote will take on the Geelong District Football League at Bell Post Hill in Geelong tomorrow.
The Heathcote side has a team of 24 players, which will be led by three co-captains _ Elmore's Andy Grant, Mount Pleasant's Shane Davis and Lockington-Bamawm United's Adrian Dohnt.
All three have previously represented the VCFL, while in Dohnt's case, he has also represented the WAFL.
Heathcote will be coached by Darryl Wilson, who previously led Colbinabbin to a hat-trick of HDFL premierships between 2002 and 2004, before embarking on a stint at the Bendigo Bombers and Kangaroo Flat.
Wilson has also coached Heathcote at inter-league previously, having guided its successful campaigns in 2003 and 2004.
Heathcote hasn't played an inter-league match since defeating Lexton Plains 22.15 (147) to 17.13 (115) in 2005 when White Hills' Jim Angove was coach.
For the Loddon Valley Football League, its absence from inter-league extends further.
Loddon Valley last played an inter-league match in 2003 when it lost to Heathcote 18.17 (125) to 13.6 (84) at Inglewood.
That last inter-league match was part of the Loddon Valley's centenary celebrations.
Loddon Valley will take a team of 24 to Benalla tomorrow to meet the Ovens and King League _ a 14-team competition located in the north-east of Victoria that produced triple Brisbane Lions premiership player Nigel Lappin.
The Loddon Valley team will be coached by Mitiamo's Bill Grant _ last year's premiership coach _ and captained by the Superoos' Guy Orton.
Orton heads a strong contingent of Mitiamo players in the side, with 10 Superoos players in the team.
As well as the senior game, there will also be an under-21 match between the Loddon Valley and Ovens and King starting from noon.
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