While the traditional Ballarat-Bendigo sporting rivalry has occupied the top billing for the Selkirk Roosters for close to a decade, there has been a slight shift over the past few seasons.

As far as the public is concerned, there is still enormous emotion in a North Ballarat and Bendigo Bombers clash.

All you have to do is sit in the grandstand among Bomber supporters at the Queen Elizabeth Oval to experience that.

Out on the ground though, the feeling in a North Ballarat and Tasmania clash is becoming more intense each time they meet.

It is only natural, with each aligned to the Kangaroos in the AFL.

There is nothing like throwing "teammates" into battle against each other to bring out the true competitivenes in a player.

Roosters coach Gerard FitzGerald agreed that the North Ballarat and Bendigo rivalry was certainly not at the same level as it had been before the teams were aligned with AFL clubs.

Although he certainly believes there remains a strong regional city rivalry.

As far as Tasmania goes, FitzGerald said Tasmanian coach Darren Cresswell saw the Roosters as a natural rival because of the Kangaroos links.

And FitzGerald said there was certainly a lot feeling among players at Arden Street.

THE rich vein of father-sons will continue at Geelong today when Tom Couch makes his debut for the Cats' VFL team.

The 18-year-old midfielder will follow in the footsteps of his famous father Paul when he dons the blue and white hoops for the first time at Skilled Stadium.

After hanging around the Cattery in his dad's day as Geelong's self-confessed No.1 fan, Couch says wearing the jumper for real will be a ``dream come true''.

``I'd like to wear the AFL one, of course, but VFL, you've got to start somewhere. So hopefully I'll play in the AFL one day, but I'm just happy here trying to get a kick,'' he said.

He means the VFL no disrespect, but his hunger to make it to the top grade is obvious.

When he missed being picked up by the Cats in the rookie draft at the end of last season, Couch was devastated. ``It was hard. The six weeks after that were the hardest of my life,'' he said.

``I wanted to give up. The first week after I thought about giving it away, but if you love it so much, you've got to stick by it and you just never know.

``You've got to stay focused, get motivated and think `there's always next year'.

Reported by Phil Edwards
From Launceston Examiner

COACH Daryn Cresswell has wielded the selection axe following the Devils' big defeat against Geelong last week as he looks for his side to rebound against North Ballarat at Austar Arena on Sunday.

Cresswell made several changes, omitting Hobart's James Charlesworth, Wynyard's Tim McMichael, Kangaroos rookie Ben Ross and Ulverstone's Sam Whish- Wilson from last week's losing side.

He recalled Darren Crawford, Nathan Street, Jason Howard, Tim Mohr, Brody Johnson, Luke Shackleton and Matthew Smith, naming an extended interchange bench of eight players that will be culled to four after the team's final training run tonight.

"It was a disappointing effort last week and it wasn't acceptable because we didn't play the style of footy that we had played the whole pre- season," he said.

"But to be only 10 points down against a side which played in last year's grand final with a number of senior experienced players was quite surprising.

"It goes to show we have got a pretty talented side and if we play the style of footy we know we can we can pretty much beat anyone," he said.

Cresswell said his young side, with an average age of 20.8 last week, had to learn from its mistakes and taking the players through a video replay of last week's game had been part of the process during the week.

"We didn't play smart footy kicking to contests and we played safe not linking up and running the footy through the corridor and taking risks," he said.