THIS is one of the biggest moves for Ballarat’s emerging football talent since before a raw Adam Goodes was in the black-and-white.
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The Rebels will play under the Greater Western Victoria Rebels banner for the first time in TAC Cup under-18 competition on Saturday.
It essentially signals the Rebels are far more than a Ballarat team now – but this is a great move for football development across the Ballarat region.
The recruiting pool is deeper, which means earning a guernsey is tougher and wearing one every week becomes a massive achievement.
While this may mean less Ballarat juniors get a chance in the elite state league, those who do are pushed harder with a greater intensity. What they learn and experience, most will take back to grassroots clubs from a club that operates in a mini-AFL environment.
It is the first dramatic shake-up for the Rebels’ branding in more than a decade, when the Ballarat Rebels turned from green-and-gold to start wearing North Ballarat’s name and trademark black with white yolk. Back then, the move was to strengthen the pathway with North Ballarat Roosters as they plunged into the Victorian Football League.
This new Rebels brand is a truer reflection of their new direction.
Boundaries have gradually been shifting.
What was predominantly an elite training environment for young Ballarat footballers a decade ago, moved into Warrnambool in 2008 while Maryborough was returned to Bendigo. By 2015, the Rebels completely took over Geelong Falcons’ old south-west and infiltrated Corangamite by adopting Camperdown.
And the Rebels already had strong footing through Ararat and into the Wimmera.
Geographically, the picture is similar for the GWV Rebels outfit in the inaugural TAC Cup Girls’ competition, which launched last week.
Talent from the Rebels’ satellite regions is impressive, too. South Warrnambool’s Hugh McCluggage was taken pick number three in last year’s AFL Draft with Brisbane Lions also selecting Horsham Saints’ Jarrod Berry inside the top 20.
Of the 15 Rebels debutants to face the Falcons in tomorrow’s season opener, only three will be from Ballarat.
The move to change the Rebels’ regional branding has been bubbling away for a couple of years.
It promotes a team for all western Victoria to follow and cheer rather than, for those outside Ballarat, merely sending players to represent a whole other town.
More than half the competition already does this, like Murray Bushrangers, Gippsland Power or the metropolitan Western Jets. But the Rebels’ move should prompt the likes of neighbouring rivals Geelong Falcons and Bendigo Pioneers to think bigger.
When the Rebels took Warrnambool, Geelong’s geographic boundary shrunk but its football population continues to boom. This includes its retained footing in Colac. Perhaps the Falcons would fly truer under a Surf Coast banner?
GWV projects on to a national stage who the Rebels proudly are now – the best from the whole state’s west.