Bendigo Gold news

The Bombers defeated Frankston 13.16 (94) to 10.11 (71) at Frankston as the side finally got some reward for its good month of football.

The win – just their second in five visits to Frankston – lifted the Bombers (2-5) into ninth position on the ladder after seven rounds.

"Today's win was huge, and it was one of the team's biggest since I have been coach," said Knights, who has coached the Bombers since 2005.

"If we had copped another loss, you start to go too far back in the pack and it's a long way back.

"What we have done today is given our group a belief that we're going to have a strong second half of the year.

"That is no more prevalent than in the fact our last month of footy has been pretty damn good, without getting our just rewards," he said.

He had surgery on a stress fracture in his left foot early in the club's pre-season, and wasn't able to train properly with his new team-mates until mid-February.

But the strong-marking forward has put those frustrations behind him, and is set to make his VFL senior debut for the Bombers against Frankston tomorrow.

'‘It's good to get an opportunity," said Weeks, who helped run a football clinic for Year Eight students at Eaglehawk Secondary College yesterday.

‘‘It's a relief to get the chance after having surgery at the start of the pre-season - not being able to hit the track with the boys and having to watch training was frustrating.

Rosa and star recruit Jason Cloke are the only two Bendigo players to make the training squad.

Rosa was rewarded for his consistent start to the season with the Bombers.

'‘It's a bit of a surprise," Rosa said after only hearing of his inclusion in the squad when contacted by The Advertiser yesterday.

‘‘It's not something I set as a goal or anything, but when something like this comes along it's nice to be picked.

‘‘If I'm lucky enough to make the final team it will be a great honour to represent the VFL." The squad will have its first training run tonight, but Rosa is unlikely to train after suffering a corked quadricep in Sunday's loss to Geelong.

‘‘I'm a bit sore, but I think I'll be right for this weekend's game (against Frankston)," Rosa said.

The VFL has named a powerful squad that includes a number of former AFL players.

The star-studded Cats won their fifth straight game, leading from start to finish in a 20.16 (136) to 16.8 (104) victory to leave the Bombers with just one win after six rounds.

Bendigo found itself behind the eight-ball from the outset as the Cats had kicked 3.3 inside the first 13 minutes before the Bombers had scored.

All six of Geelong's early scoring shots came from marks inside 50, while around the ground, Cats ruckman Steven King was giving his on-ballers an arm chair ride.

Like they would do all throughout the game though, the Bombers rallied, kicking three consecutive goals of their own, including two to Kyle Reimers, to draw within three points at the 25-minute mark.

However, Geelong answered with two late goals to King, who was resting at fullforward, to push the Cats' lead out to 15 points at quarter-time.

The Bombers would get no closer for the rest of the match, despite gaining control of the contest during periods in each of the second, third and final terms.

The Bombers have lost their past three games, while the Cats have won their past four games by an average of 61 points to be sitting in second position on the ladder after five rounds.

"Geelong has a healthy list right across the board and no doubt they have some quality players in their VFL team," Bombers coach Matthew Knights said yesterday.

"When you look at different parts of the ground and you see Charlie Gardiner and Todd Grima up forward, then in the midfield you see a Steven King, Mathew Stokes and and James Byrne, and in defence you see a Tim Callan, Josh Hunt and Max Rooke and players like that.

"The quality in their line-up suggests they are going to be very hard to beat, but in saying that, we played the best we had for the whole year last week against Williamstown.