From the Sunday Age
Reported by Brent Diamond
Source click here
THERE'S more to VFL reigning premier North Ballarat renaming its home base Eureka Stadium than a reference to the history of the region. The worth of its historic breakthrough flag last season was gold to many who doubted whether a country team could go all the way.
It changed the way the people of Ballarat thought about its local team.
"I think what's happened is that our city and our support region now have the confidence that a country side can win the Victorian Football League premiership," said coach Gerard Fitzgerald. "Up until then, it hasn't happened.
"There's a confidence and belief that it can be done. That, to me, helps us as we continue to get better," he said.
The Roosters rarely recruit from the Melbourne area — their only Melbourne-based recruit this pre-season was former Carlton rookie Clinton Benjamin, the brother of one of their own, Warren Benjamin — and pride themselves on breeding a hard-working, blue-collar-like outfit.
"That's how we try and develop our list," Fitzgerald said. "We're provided with high-quality boys from North Melbourne who have been prepared to play football at the highest level."
The return of ruckman Tristan Cartledge, Liam Anthony and Marcus White will strengthen a formidable line-up that will be the early benchmark of 2009.
Port Melbourne, Williamstown and the Werribee Tigers will again threaten, while expect to see the emergence of the Box Hill Hawks and Collingwood, in only its second season in the competition.
While Fitzgerald says his team's partial alignment with North Melbourne is of "enormous value", stand-alone clubs Port Melbourne and Frankston still believe they can win the flag, as do rival coaches and AFL Victoria chief executive Peter Schwab.
The Borough proved they were one quarter of football from taking the crown last season, while the much-admired Frankston continues to be around the mark come September.
"It's always even — you just never know from one year to the next," Schwab said.
But there's no doubting that players with the ilk of AFL experience have a massive say on VFL game day.
"There was a perfect example of it the year before (2007) with Collingwood when we (Williamstown) had(Paul) Licuria, (Brodie) Holland, (Ryan) Lonie and those guys that were carrying injuries and we struggled in the second half of the year," Williamstown coach Brad Gotch said.
Gotch believes teams must find the right balance of AFL and VFL-listed players and ingredients to win a flag in the current VFL competition.
"But Sandy have won a few in a row with a lot of their players, and they had a few from Melbourne when they're up and about," he said.
"Geelong have done the same thing and have gone very well when their senior players are up and about. You need your Williamstown list and you need a whole team effort. You need 22 contributors — you can't have some being up and some being down," he said.
Fitzgerald said he admired the Seagulls because "they're continually up there and that's what makes a good team".
And the Seagulls will be flying again with the additions of Ben Davies and Chris Egan to help an established team that was premiership favourite towards the end of the home-and-away season.
