From Hobart Mercury
Reported by James Bresnehan
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BURNIE Dockers bigman Andy Lee was named state captain yesterday and immediately took a swipe at his side's critics.
Lee, 25, a former Essendon forward, lashed out at detractors who claim the Tasmanian side is too young and too inexperienced to beat the VFL in their representative match at Blundstone Arena on Saturday.
Lee, a Burnie-based real estate agent, who will have Glenorchy's Jaye Bowden as his vice-captain, said the youth policy adopted by state selectors was the right formula to build representative teams of the future, given Tasmania has committed to interstate games until 2017.
"A lot of people have written us off, which is disappointing," Lee said yesterday.
"Some people have jumped up and down about the youth policy, but I think it's a really good initiative for Tasmania.
"Our squad is very good.
"Just because it doesn't have the names in the squad it doesn't mean the players are no good."
The state squad was missing many of the biggest names in the competition when it was announced three weeks ago, but Lee said form was a critical factor.
"They are good players, picked because they've been in really good form," he said.
"It's wrong to say the players don't deserve to be there when they definitely do.
"AFL Tas have done the right thing by picking the guys in form, and we'll see how we go on the weekend."
The VFL side contains plenty of talent, including players Lee played against when he was with the Bombers.
"It's going to be the same feeling of pride for them to put on the Victorian jumper as we get when we put on the Map," he said.
The mood in the Tasmanian camp was buoyant at training in Launceston last night.
"We've been working hard on how we want to play against the VFL and hopefully put in a really good performance on Saturday," Lee said.
