CENTRAL Highlands Football League under-18 best and fairest Jacob Brown will debut for North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup in Ballarat on Saturday.
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Brown, who has been part of the Rebels’ under-17 rookie squad this year, has had a stand-out year with Hepburn in the CHFL. As well as being voted the best in the competition, Brown was also the leading goalkicker. Brown has been named as the Rebels’ 23rd player for the last home and away round.
The Rebels take on the sixth-placed Oakleigh Chargers at Eureka Stadium with top position on the line. North Ballarat heads Dandenong on percentage in the race for the minor premiership, so top spot is on the line.
The Rebels have only lost three times this season, but two of those have been in the past five rounds. They bounced back from a defeat at the hands of Gippsland Power with a 26-point win over eighth-placed Calder Cannons – a performance which puts Rebels in good stead for this challenge heading into the finals.
This is an important outing for the Rebels, which went out of last year’s finals series in straight sets, losing each of their two appearances after finishing fourth.North Ballarat has to go back three years to last time its won a final. It finished on top in 2012, but still came up short in its bid to reach grand final.
The Rebels naturally have a big turnover of players each year, but as an organisation it would like nothing better than turn around its finals fortunes and play off in the big one.
The Rebels meet Oakleigh Chargers at 11am in a curtain-raiser to the VFL clash between North Ballarat and Coburg.
Rebels line-up: