The TRUenergy Victorian Football League has announced its squad of 25 players to represent the Big V against Western Australia on Saturday at Port Melbourne’s TEAC Oval.

A team of 22 players and three emergencies and the captain and vice-captain will be named on Thursday night.

The team consists of:

• 5 VFL Captains
• 10 players 23 years or under
• 4 players over 27 years, the oldest 29 years
• 10 players who have played AFL
• 18 players who have not represented Victoria before
• 3 players from the 2005 team Vs SA
• 4 players who have represented Victoria at state level (7) in total
• Average age of team: 24 years.

Three-time TRUenergy VFL premiers Sandringham have the most representatives with six.

Victoria will be coached by Mark Williams (Sandringham) and assistant coach is Simon Atkins (Werribee).

VFL General Manager Martin Stillman said a number of players were not selected due to clouds over their fitness. Phil Read (Geelong) was not available for selection due to personal reasons.

"We have picked a balanced squad that is fit and in form and a good blend of youth and experience," Stillman said. "It is fantastic that 18 of the 25 are in line to represent Victoria for the first time. We believe the selected players will represent the Big V with passion and pride on Saturday.’’

Bendigo Bombers Jason Cloke * Simon Rosa *

Box Hill Hawks Kristan Height * Nick Smith *

Coburg Tigers Alistair Neville *

Frankston Justin Berry # Ashley Eames *

Geelong James Byrne ^ Jason Davenport *

North Ballarat Tristan Cartledge *

Northern Bullants Josh Houlihan *

Port Melbourne John Baird * Luke Livingston * Chris Obst ^ David Robbins ^ David Spriggs *

Sandringham Andrew Biddlecombe * Rod Crowe # Ezra Poyas * Nick Sautner ^ Peter Summers * Shane Valenti *

Werribee James Podsiadly # Robert Castello *

Williamstown Brett Johnson *

* - Player has not represented Victoria before (18)
# - Player represented Victoria in the last State Game against South Australia in 2005 (3)
^ - Player has previously represented Victoria (4)

BENDIGO overcame a sluggish start yesterday to outclass the Dolphins by 23 points at Frankston Oval. Boosted by some quality talls, including Kepler Bradley, Courtney Johns and Jason Laycock, the Bombers didn't gel as a team until midway through the second quarter.

Goalless and trailing by 23 points at the first break, the inaccurate Bombers allowed the Dolphins to extend the margin to 28 points before finally clicking into gear.

Bendigo suddenly switched from frustrating to fantastic. It kicked seven goals in a row to take the lead, and was good enough to maintain a three-goal buffer for practically the rest of the match. On the other hand, Frankston, which had looked dangerous early, struggled to match the Bombers for height and was let down by some average delivery into its forward 50.

Bendigo captain Simon Rosa did a fantastic job containing Frankston livewire Justin Berry. The Dolphin forward has been in superb touch but struggled to make an impact as Rosa wore him like a glove. Berry finished with three goals, but two of those came in the final quarter when the contest was all but over.

The Bombers defeated Frankston 13.16 (94) to 10.11 (71) at Frankston as the side finally got some reward for its good month of football.

The win – just their second in five visits to Frankston – lifted the Bombers (2-5) into ninth position on the ladder after seven rounds.

"Today's win was huge, and it was one of the team's biggest since I have been coach," said Knights, who has coached the Bombers since 2005.

"If we had copped another loss, you start to go too far back in the pack and it's a long way back.

"What we have done today is given our group a belief that we're going to have a strong second half of the year.

"That is no more prevalent than in the fact our last month of footy has been pretty damn good, without getting our just rewards," he said.

Schwab said with some AFL clubs wanting to return of an AFL reserves competition, the survival of the Victorian Football League was far from secure.

Schwab said AFL Victoria wanted the VFL to retain its status, but admitted it would not be without change - a view shared by the Roosters.

"The biggest issue Victorian football has got at the moment is the second tier review," Schwab explained.

"The VFL is under extreme pressure because the AFL clubs are looking at whether they should revamp the reserves competition," he said.

"That decision will have huge ramifications, not only for the VFL, but for how they restructure the TAC Cup (under-18) system as well.

"AFL clubs want total control of their players and the only way they believe they can get that control is if they run their own team.