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 localfooty.com.au
Reported by Chris Cavanagh and Tim Michell for the Moreland Leader
Full article - Click here

CALDER Cannons talent manager Ian Kyte would always toe the company line.

He would tell TAC Cup graduates who were not drafted by AFL clubs their best option was to head to VFL side Coburg, a traditional pathway club.

But deep down, he did not always believe what he was saying.

“Before I would be recommending that was a place that kids continue their career but I’m not sure I believed it myself,” Kyte said.

After splitting from its alignment with Richmond at the end of the 2012 season, some suggested Coburg would not survive a year as a stand-alone club.

How things have changed.

The Lions have thrived under the leadership of general manager Craig Lees and coach Peter German and building stronger bridges with the Cannons has been crucial to their success.

At least 22 of Coburg’s 60 listed players this year will be Calder graduates.

“If you look back to when Germo and I first got there at the start of 2014 there was maybe five Cannons on the list,” Lees said.

“No one wanted to go there. It wasn’t a pathway. So we’ve done really well.”

By the end of the 2014 season, Lees and German had a story to sell.

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.”