Courtesy of Leader Newspapers
Reported by Paul Amy

CASEY Scorpions captain Nigel Carmody will wear the black and white colours of the Collingwood jumper next season.

Carmody, a 142-game stalwart of the Scorpions, confirmed on Monday that he had joined the Magpies' VFL team.

Collingwood will be running its own state league team after cutting ties with its partner of seven years, Williamstown.

Carmody's decision followed meetings with Collingwood coach Gavin Brown, recruiting official Noel Judkins and football manager Geoff Walsh. 

He admitted the departure of coach Peter Banfield had prompted him to "look around".

"It was the impetus for me to see what was out there, which is something I've never done before," he said. "It's pretty well known I was disappointed with the coaching situation. I thought Peter did a good job and deserved to stay on."

From The Age

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Former Collingwood AFL captain and assistant coach Gavin Brown has been appointed as the inaugural coach of the Magpies' stand-alone VFL side.

Collingwood cut its ties with VFL affiliate Williamstown at the end of the 2007 season, believing their player development would be better served by running their own reserves team.

"It's a great opportunity for me, personally, but it's also fantastic for the club to be able to fast-track our players and develop them the way we want to do it," Brown told collingwoodfc.com.au.

"I think it's going to be a fairly significant change for the club, there's no doubt about that. We had a terrific alignment with Williamstown, and it was possibly the best in the competition.

"But still, at the end of the day, there were issues as Williamstown is obviously there to win footy, and we want to win games of footy too, but at the same time, sometimes you feel it's more important to actually develop the player."

Ayres, an assistant coach at Essendon for the past two seasons, accepted the job yesterday.

He replaces Saade Ghazi, who did not have his contract renewed, despite coaching Port into the finals this year.

Ayres was not offered an assistant coaching role by new Essendon coach Matthew Knights, who wanted the former Hawthorn champion to accept a full-time opposition analysis role.

But Ayres said last night he was over-qualified for the job and still had ambitions of coaching a senior AFL side. "I was happy to stay at Essendon if there was another coaching job there," he said.

David Spriggs completed an impressive first year at Port Melbourne, taking out the 'Darky' McPharlane medal as 2007 Best and Fairest.

Spriggs was a narrow winner polling 30 votes, in one of the closest vote counts for the Borough in recent times.  John Baird finished runner up with 28, while third place was split between Sam Plemming and Ryan 'Shooter' McMahon. on 24 apiece.

In the Reserves count, ball-magnet Sam Dwyer, already awarded the A. Todd medal for the VFL Reserves best and fairest, collected Port's award, scoring 57 votes.

Marcus Carroll (33 votes), and Matthew Pearce (29) collected the 2nd and 3rd  runner up prizes respectively.

The prestigious Norm Goss Medal was awarded to Rhys Bloomfield.

On a sadder note, Captain Chris Obst announced his retirement on the night, thanking everyone involved during his time at the club.  Chris Obst came to the club during the Swans alignment and remained on with the club when delisted by Sydney at the end of 2002.

Other award winners on the night were: