AMID all the deserved fanfare for decorated Roosters head coach Gerard FitzGerald, it could be hard to miss another exit that has been extremely influential at both Eureka Stadium and for this region’s football.
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North Melbourne Football Club says goodbye. The Kangaroos and North Ballarat Roosters shut a 10-season partnership that net three straight Victorian Football League premierships and proudly elevated Ballarat and the Roosters, a country club, to command national attention.
This has evolved into a successful and envied alignment because it is based on solid two-way development. The Roos and Roosters want the best from each other.
The most understated element of this relationship has been the impact on this region’s grassroots football, far more than an extended period of community camps in town and a commitment to deliver AFL matches. There is the flow-on effect.
Talented country players on the Roosters’ list are exposed to AFL standards in training and playing. Roosters players team up with AFL players. Roosters players share tactics with AFL coaches. Roosters staff conduct their roles in an AFL-like environment.
Kangaroos players and staff work as a team with the Roosters rather than throwing their weight around or limited club talent to stuff a line-up with AFL-listed players in an outdated reserves-like model that so many other VFL bases have struggled to fit. Kangaroosters (the Roosters’ North Melbourne players) offer voice and leadership in team meetings and huddles. They are striving to help the Roosters improve.
In turn, the Roosters have been a developmental base for promising Roos, like American ruck project Eric Wallace. Most notably, like Roos’ captain Andrew Swallow, who reached a cross roads in his career and became a key player in the Roosters’ 2008 premiership before cementing an AFL spot. The Roosters have been a trusted pathway for Roo comebacks, like Swallow last year from a major Achilles injury or Daniel Wells a fortnight ago also with an Achilles, or to iron-out Lindsay Thomas' goal-kicking yips.
These influences all flows back to grassroots football and has done so more in the past two season than in the whole 10-year union. The Roosters’ axing of the club’s development team has players returning to country bases in Ballarat, Warrnambool and Geelong in a similar way Kangaroos move into the VFL to sharpen their game with the Roosters. Such players offer their ‘home’ clubs the skill and learnings they have from exposure to the AFL environment.
This season developing ruckman Rowan Marshall has tested his game against seasoned AFL rivals in the VFL and has made a massive impact in the Ballarat Football League with Sebastopol.
The flow-on effect was reinforced when Kangaroos head coach Brad Scott led a Rebels training session and open forum for country coaches to watch, learn and talk with Roos’ coaching staff. His aim was to grow the region’s football as a whole.
North Melbourne leaves a impressive impact on Ballarat football that extends far beyond Eureka Stadium.