A TOTAL of 48 junior boys will represent the Geelong region at the Victorian Country Football Championships in Bendigo this coming weekend. Geelong will be sending three Junior Boys’ teams to the long weekend carnival, which will compete in the U12s, U14s and U16s age categories.

This year is the first time in more than three years that the Geelong region has fielded representative squads at the annual Country Championships tournament, thanks largely to the efforts of GOFC Coaching Director, Pete Bradley.

Bradley and his team of coaches initiated the idea, selected the coaches and oversaw the selection of the squads and even tried to get Girls’ representative teams up and running.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of numbers at the recent Selection Trials, in the end the Geelong region only managed to field the three Boys’ squads. It is hoped next year will see the Geelong region field representative Girls’ squads in all three age categories.

Kicking off the Geelong assault at this year’s Championships will be the Under 16s selection, with their game against the Echuca-Moama representative side on Saturday morning at 9am.

The Under 16s side (top photo), consists of players from four clubs in the region and includes the following:

Max Tagliabue (Rangers), Luke Coppe (Bell Park), Ruairi Donnellan (Rangers), Josh Bertucci (Rangers), Carlin McCloskey (Rangers), To, Chapple (Rangers), Kas[er Bromley (Surfside), Finn Rodgers (Rangers), Noah Broomhead (Surfside), Lachlan Gall (Rangers), Loughlin Fitzgerald (Rangers), Ben Conn (Rangers), Isaac Gragam (Rangers), Patrick Skuza (Surfside), Jayden Skinner (Surfcoast), Dougal Sims (Rangers).

The second match of the morning featuring a Geelong representative side involves the Under 14s squad (middle photo), which will tackle Bendigo at 10am.

The players representing Geelong in the Under 14s age division are as follows:

James Pante (Bell Park), Seth Szkuta (Surfcoast), Finn Paton (Surfcoast), Lachlan Santoro (Bell Park), Mylton Bailey (Surfcoast), Rafiq Halim (Surfcoast), Daniel Costoso (Surfcoast), Olegas Rodgers (Rangers), Jonathan Augello (North Geelong), Daniel Lavelle (Breakwater), Nathan Niedzwiedzki (Barwon), Antonio Pirrottina (Bell Park), Rocco Simunic (Elcho Park), Nicholas Baric (Elcho Park), Thomas Tigani (Elcho Park), Hunter Purdy (Barwon).

Finally, the youngest squad, the Under 12s (bottom photo) will also take on the hosts Bendigo with their game scheduled for an 11am kick off.

The players representing the Geelong Under 12s include:

Cain Donnellan (Rangers), Jacob Bertucci (Rangers), Owen McClosekey (Rangers), Marcus Spasevski (Bell Park), Hunter Lewis (Rangers), William Portch (Barwon Heads), Jeremiah Jacoby (Rangers), Will Conn (Rangers), Aydin Kurul (Bell Park), Lachlan Brown (Surfcoast), Edward Leishman (Rangers), Aaron Bridges (Rangers), Sam Bickett (Rangers), Traevarn Sparks (Barwon Heads), Noah Pitout (Rangers), Joshua Brooks (Rangers).

The Under 16s will play a total of six regular pool games while the Under 12s and Under 14s will play four each.

We wish all three Boys’ representative squads the very best of luck in Bendigo!