The Rural Bank Bendigo Pioneers will blood seven first-gamers in Saturday’s TAC Cup season-opener against the Greater Western Victoria Rebels in Ballarat.
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Sandhurst’s Flynn Perez, Wedderburn’s Will Holt, Tyntynder duo James Sala and Alex Smith-Ralph, Moama’s Riley Clarke, Cohuna’s Jackson Williams and Kyabram’s Riley Ironside will don the Pioneers jumper for the first time at under-18 level.
Pereze is likely to play a role off half-back, Holt can play key position at either end of the ground, Sala, Smith-Ralph and Williams will slot into midfield roles, while Clarke and Ironside are athletic forwards.
“It’s great for the club to have seven first-gamers from across our region,’’ coach Rick Coburn said.
“They’ve all worked really hard to get to this stage and they deserve their spots.”
Perez gave up a promising soccer career to focus on footy, Williams is returning from a knee reconstruction, while Clarke is in his first year on the list after his family moved to Moama from Cairns.
Little has separated the Pioneers and Rebels in recent years and Coburn expects that trend to continue.
“We split our two matches 1-1 last year,’’ Coburn said.
“They’re in a similar position to us in that they have a number of bottom-age players playing. It should be a good contest.”
Coburn said his team was pumped up for round one.
“After five months of training everyone is really keen to get into the real stuff,’’ he said. “It’s going to take some time for the group to gel, but we’re expecting to be play our best footy in the second half of the season.”
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