VFA / VFL News

SATURDAY MARCH 12
Casey Scorpions vs Williamstown at Casey Fields DL 10am VFL 12:30pm
Northern Blues vs Box Hill Hawks at IKON Park VFL 10am DL 1pm
Essendon vs Geelong at True Value Solar Centre 12pm
North Ballarat vs Port Melbourne at Marty Busch Reserve,Sebastapol 1pm
Collingwood vs Footscray at Holden Centre 2pm
Frankston vs Sandringham at Frankston DL 11am VFL 2pm

From Leader Groups Local Footy
Reported by Luke D'Anello
Full article - Click here

FOOTSCRAY coach Ashley Hansen says he plans to unleash Lauchlan Dalgleish in the VFL club’s midfield.

The 22-year-old former Essendon-listed player headlines five new signatures at the Dogs, who progressed to the semi-finals in 2015.

Dalgleish made three senior appearances during his three seasons with the Bombers, but was a key contributor for their VFL team as a defender.

“He’ll be a real asset and I think he has the flexibility to play across all three lines, which we need from our VFL-listed players and which we have a strong philosophy on,” Hansen said.

“He spent a fair bit of time at Essendon down back, but I think his primary role for us will be through the midfield, with his ability to connect inside 50 and use his athletic ability.

“I think he’ll complement what we’ve got already.

SUNDAY MARCH 6
Collingwood vs Werribee at Holden Centre 1pm

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 27
Frankston vs Burnie Dockers at Frankston 4pm

From The Age
Reported by
Full article - Click here

Have you heard the one about the Jew and the Muslim? At Coburg it's no joke. Already a club with a reputation for promoting multiculturalism, the Lions took things one step further last week when they signed forward Jake Lew from amateur club AJAX.

Lew is Jewish, and is set to line up next year in perhaps the most ethnically diverse forward line ever assembled. Lew's signature follows that of former St Kilda goalsneak Ahmed Saad, a Muslim, who returns to state ranks to play alongside mates Danny Younan and Ozgur Uysal. Younan was born in Australia to a Lebanese mother and Syrian father, while Uysal is a Turk. The Lions' forward line also includes Lech Featherstone, who as detailed last year in Pssst, was named after a Polish union leader of the 1980s.

From the SBS News website
Reported by Sarah Abo
Full article - Click here

Doctors have been shocked by the survival of a young footballer who contracted a rare and deadly muscle-attacking bacteria.

A Victorian man is one of just seven people who have survived a rare superbug that’s believed to have struck only 21 people in the world.

Sam O’Sullivan not only defied those odds, but it’s also believed he is the only survivor to have escaped losing a limb after being infected with necrotising myositis – a fast-spreading infection that attacks the body’s muscles.

Mr O'Sullivan said he had flu-like symptoms for about a week, which culminated in being hospitalised for severe shin pain.

“They couldn’t really find out what was going on for another couple of days,” he told 3AW radio.

“My leg blew up and my foot stopped working. I lost sensation.”

He went into surgery for compartment syndrome, but it wasn’t until doctors had made an incision that they realised what they were dealing with.

“They opened my leg up and got the shock of their lives.”

From The Age
Reported by Brent Diamond
Full article - http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/vfl-williamstown-into-first-grand-...

Williamstown won through to their first grand final since 2011 after withstanding a gritty Essendon by 12 points in a pulsating preliminary final at North Port Oval on Sunday.
It sets up a tantalising grand final at Etihad Stadium on Sunday against the Box Hill Hawks; the team they lost to in last year's preliminary final — their seventh of the last nine prelimin finals — by seven points.

Certainly, the mental demons from that final had returned at three-quarter-time after the Seagulls gave up a 27-point lead from mid-way through the third term to trail the Bomber by five-points.

Seagulls coach Andy Collins, who said the win "means everything to the footy club", told his charges at the last change: "You've got to get the ball control back."
He threw opportunist goalkicker Sam Dunell and Cameron Lockwood behind the ball and - along with Ben Jolley, who had 14 of his 28 disposals in the final term, and defender Peter Faulks, who controlled the dangerous Kyle Hardingham – the Seagulls, with the week's break, outran the Bombers, winning 15.12 (102) to 12.18 (90).

Leigh Masters, a former Bendigo Bomber, kicked the opening two goals of the last term, before goals to Mitch Banner and Sam Critchley sealed the result.
Dunell said the week's break — after upsetting Sandringham in the qualifying final — was the difference with their part-time players needing extra time to recuperate.

"We knew we had the legs with a week's break, it's just great to see us run over the top," Dunell said..

"We've been planning for it [making a grand final] since October-November... all that hard work. It's just a great feeling," he said.
Williamstown, with seven players in this year's VFL team of the year, are the first stand-alone team to make a grand final since Port Melbourne, who beat the Seagulls, in 2011. They will be out to win their first flag since 2003 as Collins coaches against Box Hill, a team he is familiar with, having taken the club to finals in 2004-05 and being a former Hawthorn premiership player.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 27
TAC Cup Grand Final
Eastern Ranges vs Oakleigh Chargers at Etihad Stadium 11:05am
VFL Grand Final
Box Hill Hawks($1.72) vs Williamstown($2.10) at Etihad Stadium 3pm

(Odds from Crownbet)