BRETT Goodes has withdrawn from the Ballarat Football League representative squad to take on Western Region in the AFL Victorian Community Championship next Saturday.
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Head coach Shaun O’Loughlin said it was disappointing to have lost a player of his calibre and experience.
“It also would have been good for Sebastopol to have him representing it.”
Goodes is in his first year with Sebastopol after 22 AFL games in three years with the Western Bulldogs.
He was the Burra’s only player in the squad.
In-form East Point ruckman Paul Koderenko and Lake Wendouree’s Ben Taylor have also pulled out.
O’Loughlin said experienced Koderenko felt he needed a break as he was finding it harder and harder to come up each week at this stage of his career.
He said Koderenko had been committed to interleague football for a sustained period
“Time’s catching up with him.”
Taylor is Melbourne based and told O’Loughlin meeting the demands of the squad’s preparation was too difficult.
On the plus side, Melton South’s Ben Sortino has been added to the squad preparing for the encounter at Footscray’s Whitten Oval.
O’Loughlin, who started with a squad of 38, plans to trim it back to about 27 for training at Darley on Tuesday before having the final 23 plus two emergencies at the final session at the Eastern Oval on Thursday. The squad will have a recovery session at St Patrick’s College on Sunday when O’Loughlin will make a final call on form and fitness.
