WHEN North Ballarat City runs onto Eastern Oval for Saturday’s grand final against Ballarat, almost 70 per cent of its players will have risen through the club’s junior ranks.
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A total of 15 out of the 22 players to pull on a North City jumper will have at some stage played junior footy at Eureka Stadium, which club president Peter Carey said was a sign of the club doing exactly what it promised when it re-entered the league.
At the time of North City coming into the BFL late in 2007, there was initially hesitation from other clubs that there would be an alignment between the North Ballarat Roosters and North City.
Ballarat-based clubs expressed fear of the Northies being almost unstoppable as they were before moving to the VFL in 1997.
However, Carey said every condition imposed on the club upon its entry seven years ago had been followed and the abundance of former juniors now in the senior side showed the strength of the junior program.
“It proves to me we are on the right track, we are doing the right thing and doing what we said we were going to do,” he said.
“It’s a significant thing to have so many former juniors in the senior side. North City was re-established as club to serve as a pathway to our juniors because they had nowhere else to go.
“Now the majority of the seniors side is made up of juniors and we are in our second grand final in a row.”
Among the former juniors is four-time Henderson Medallist Jarrod Edwards.
Although most will remember Edwards for his glory years at Redan, he actually was a member of North Ballarat’s last premiership in 1996 – its last season in the BFL.
Carey also paid tribute to Tristan Cartledge, a former North Ballarat youngster who went on to play AFL before returning to his home club.
Last year’s North City premiership team had 13 former junior players.
patrick.nolan@fairfaxmedia.com.au
