FOR Grovedale youngster Ben Raidme, the disappointment of missing past VFL cuts continues to fuel his determination to play at the highest level he can.

The 21-year-old midfielder has just fallen short of winning a spot on Geelong's 20-man VFL squad in two of the last three seasons.

But, throughout the failed attempts and near misses, he never lost sight of his quest to eventually crack it at VFL level - one day.

Following a breakout season with the Tigers at GFL level last year, Raidme knows his time to impress has now arrived and is hoping 2009 emerges as third time lucky.

"I trained pretty hard when I knew I was coming down here, so I got pretty fit," Raidme said.

"I knew what to expect because this was my third time around trying to make the list, so I've been training pretty hard."

From Inside Football
Reported by Paul Amy

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Box Hill Hawks will not be running reserves this year. But it will be fielding a “development” team.

From the Pakenham Cardinia Leader
Reported by Paul Amy

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FORMER Dandenong star Andrew Lacko has joined the Casey Scorpions as an assistant coach.

The dual Dandy best and fairest played for the club briefly in its Springvale days, after the Redlegs were wound up at the end of the 1994 season.

He later coached and played in the Eastern league.

A classy centreman, Lacko covered a lot of ground during his playing days. But he will be doing less miles in his coaching role: he lives not far from the Casey Fields ground.

Meanwhile the Scorpions have signed leading VAFA forward Matt Moore.

From the Border Mail
Reported by Brad McGrath
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WODONGA Raiders impressive pre-season recruiting campaign has been capped off by signing Williamstown star Adam Cook.

Cook, 22, agreed to join the Raiders on Tuesday with his signature heading off interest from at least one other Ovens and Murray club.

From the Ballarat Courier
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AN AFL-standard playing surface for Ballarat is a step closer to reality.
Turf laying works as part of the $950,000 Northern Oval upgrade were finished late this week.

The new couch grass surface has eleven weeks to settle in to be ready in time for the North Ballarat Football Club's first VFL season home game against Collingwood on May 2.

CASEY Scorpions football manager Craig Lees is tipping big things for his club’s new AFL relationship with Melbourne on the eve of the 2009 VFL season.

Lees praised Demons officials’ approachability after their intra-club match on Saturday and expects the alignment to be more successful than the Scorpions’ eight-year partnership with St Kilda.

From Inside Football - Online
Article by Phil Cleary

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Gary Ayres isn’t the first celebrity coach in the VFA/VFL, but few have won as many hearts. He did everything in his power to take Port to the flag. Just why so many of his stars went missing when the game was calling for a hero is something he’ll ponder in the coming days. Unable to find a spot where Dylan McLaren could influence the game and counter the dominance of Rooster ruckman Orren Stephenson, Ayres’ game plan simply unravelled. Suddenly players who’d looked invincible in the midfield throughout the finals – Toby Pinwell, Robin Nahas and Ryan McMahon – couldn’t find the ball and were error ridden when they did. How Port missed midfielder David Spriggs!