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READ MORE - HDFNL 2019 end of season review
COLBINABBIN'S bid to go one better than this year's runners-up finish in the Heathcote District league has begun with the addition of midfielder/forward Jed Brain.
Brain joins the Grasshoppers with a CV that includes winning the Picola and District league's north-west division Pearce Medal in 2017 while playing with Blighty.
A former Bendigo Pioneer, Brain spent this year playing with Chelsea, kicking 25 goals, while in his 2017 league medal season for Blighty he booted 54 goals as a 21-year-old playing predominantly as a midfielder.
"He's a midfielder/forward that we're really excited to get," Colbinabbin coach Julian Bull said at the weekend.
"We played against him in a practice match earlier this year and he probably only had 18 or so touches, but would have been the best player on the ground.
"He kicked three goals, two of them from the boundary, so he's certainly got plenty of class."
Brain's addition at Colbinabbin comes on the back of the Grasshoppers losing this year's grand final to North Bendigo by 36 points.
While there are no definite departures at this stage from the grand final team, Bull indicated the Grasshoppers were likely to lose inside midfielder Xavier Walsh - who missed the decider with an AC joint injury - back to Sandhurst, and Chris Horsley will also be on the move.
Plus young gun teenagers Cooper and Hugh Hamilton have obtained scholarships to Caulfield Grammar where they will play school football, but will align themselves with the Grasshoppers.
Meanwhile, following its earlier signings of Jack Fallon as assistant coach and Lachlan Sidebottom, While Hills have confirmed three further recruits with the additions of Jake Dickens, Nathan Moffat and Ryan Walker.
Defender Dickens and midfielder Moffat are both former players at the Demons, with Dickens having finished runner-up in White Hills' 2017 best and fairest.
Walker, who will add to the Demons' midfield brigade, has spent the past two years with Maiden Gully YCW.
Walker was runner-up in the Eagles' 2018 best and fairest.
However, the biggest confirmed recruiting splash so far has been made by Lockington-Bamawm United, with the Cats having signed Brodie Collins (co-coach), Ben McPhee, Jesse Collins, Trent Bacon and Lachlan Atherton from Eaglehawk and James McPhee from Rochester.
And it has also been confirmed that the HDFNL's third tier competition will remain under-17s in 2020.
Meanwhile, five players from the Bendigo Pioneers have been selected in the Vic Country hub of the AFL Academy.
The Pioneers' contingent features Sandhurst's Sam Conforti, Strathfieldsaye's Jack Ginnivan, Colbinabbin's Cooper Hamilton, Robinvale's Seamus Mitchell and Cohuna's Josh Treacy.
Players selected in the hubs will form the core of next year's Vic Country and Vic Metro squads for the Under-18 National Championships.
The Vic Country hub features 30 players, with their first training camp to be held from December 15 to 19
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