Bendigo City aims to farewell Will Keating in style

Keating, one of City's two acting captains early in the season in the absence of injured skipper Aidan Lane, will play his last game for Bendigo City this weekend.

The 18-year-old, who returned home from Melbourne late last year to play with his home club in its return to senior soccer for the first time since 2017, is joining the army.

Keating has received an early call-up after it was initially thought he would begin his army training later in the year.

Bendigo City FC senior coach Greg Thomas said Keating would be sorely missed, but went with the club's full blessing.

"We'd sincerely love to wish him all the best in his last game for the club and for the future," he said.

"It's a massive loss.

"We always knew he was trying to get into the army, but we weren't sure if that would happen until later in the year or maybe even the end of the year.

"He's a great young bloke and we are devastated to lose him, but he has a bright and exciting future ahead of him.

"We hope everything works out for him."

Thomas said Keating - a linchpin in City's defensive midfield early in the season - had made a massive impact on his team-mates in the team's first seven months together, after starting pre-season in October.

"On and off the pitch he's a great young bloke and will be sorely missed," he said.

"He has really stepped up as a leader for us and hopefully we can do the right thing by him and send him off with a win."

Bendigo City will be aiming to continue its bright start to the MSL season, sitting in second spot on the division five west ladder with three wins and a draw.

READ MORE: Bendigo City makes move into second spot on Men's State League 5 West ladder

Thomas' squad will enter the contest against Ballarat at Epsom Huntly Recreation Reserve in superb form following a 5-1 away win over Surfside Waves, highlighted by a hat-trick from Lewis Merriman.

The playing coach, who will return to the field after spending two weeks on the sidelines, hopes a clash against City's traditional rivals will bring out the best in his squad.

"It's always been built up a bit as that Goldfields derby; Ballarat won't be easy, they had a draw on the weekend with Balmoral, which is one of the top sides," he said.

"The ladder position is probably a bit irrelevant when you are going into a derby match, both teams lift and they will no doubt be up for it.

"We're looking forward to it and hopefully being the only (soccer) game on in Bendigo on the weekend and not that much other sport on, we hope to get a big crowd there."

Despite a lengthy pre-season and with four games under their belts, Thomas said his squad would go into the contest relatively fresh.

"There are no injuries to speak of and with the scoreline against Surfside being pretty comfortable we gave a few guys a bit of a rest," he said.

"There are no injuries to speak of and with the scoreline against Surfside being pretty comfortable we gave a few guys a bit of a rest," he said.

"They've been playing plenty of minutes over the pre-season and early on in the season.

"We gave a few young boys an opportunity late in the game; Darius Thomas, who is only 16 came on in the second half and Jacob Floyd, who's also 16, came on as well.

"It was a good experience for them to get a taste of senior football.

"We really want to promote from within our club, we don't want to go out and chase players if we don't have to."

Saturday's senior match starts at 5pm, following the reserves at 3pm.

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