Billy Jones knows all about the disappointment of losing a football grand final.
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He has done it twice and will be doing all in his power to ensure he does not experience the feeling again when he lines up for East Point against Sebastopol in the Ballarat Football League grand final at Mars Stadium on Saturday.
He is one of six playing for the Roos who were not part of their 2018 premiership - joining other recruits Jesse Baird and Joel Mahar, and Drew Murphy, Mitch Tuddenham and Lucas Dahlenburg, who were impacted by injury last season.
Ironically, Jones, 23, was extremely close to being part of that premiership campaign.
It was only loyalty to Grovedale in the Geelong league which stopped him joining the Roos last year.
Jones said Grovedale was facing a mass exodus of players and he would have felt uncomfortable being part of that, so stayed,
Jones spent most of his junior playing days with Redan before joining Buninyong, where he played under existing East Point coach Jake Bridges for a year.
Despite still living and studying in Ballarat, he then ventured to Grovedale and it was while there that he found himself on the North Ballarat Roosters VFL list in 2017.
"That was awesome," he said reflecting on the Roosters stint.
Jones said a desire to reduce travelling and an opportunity to play with some mates had all been part of the switch to East Point.
He said there was a burning desire among the players to go back-to-back.
"It's a young a group with a lot to offer and play for."
This is a view shared by Jesse Baird, who made the move from Clunes in the CHFL this year after being urged by his grandfather to test himself in the BFL.
With no allegiance to any club in particular, Baird said he asked East Point president Garry Wilson if it would interested in giving him an opportunity.
It was not the first time the former Clunes junior had been linked with the Roos. He signed with them for 2014, but moved to Westen Australia, where he spent two years and played in a premiership.
Baird, 25, said it had been easy fit at East Point. "They were very welcoming."
He said although he was coming from an outside perspective, he felt the players were much more settled this season for the experience of last year.
Although all his previous football has been spent in attack or the midfield, Baird has quickly developed into one of the competiition's best defenders and it will be there he tries to mark his mark against Sebastopol on Saturday.
