AFL Sydney-Canberra rep teams primed for Tassie match
By Dr Rod Gillett
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Sydney Swans’ 2012 Norm Smith medallist, Ryan O’Keefe, is up for the challenge of coaching the combined Canberra-Sydney men’s representative team against Tasmania at York Park, Launceston this Saturday (20 July) in what is a welcome return to rep footy for the visitors.
Lloyd Perris, a former AFLW assistant coach at the GWS Giants, is coaching the women’s combined representative team.
“We’re excited. We’re passionate about giving our men and women players a chance to play representative footy for their respective competitions interstate,” said O’Keefe, who is also the Coaching Development and Education Lead for AFL NSW/ACT, based in Sydney.
“We realise it’s going to be challenging to bring our groups together from Sydney and Canberra but are undaunted about taking on Tasmania on their own turf.”
“We’re rapt with the buy-in from the players and the support from AFL NSW/ACT,” he added.
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Players to watch, men’s match
Tasmania is fresh from a convincing 46-point win over Queensland on the Gold Coast and will be a formidable opponent for the AFL Sydney/AFL Canberra combined team in the senior men’s match.
The Tasmanian team will be wearing the traditional guernsey which features the map of Tassie while the combined team will wear the colours of the NSW/ACT junior state teams (light blue jumper with royal blue yoke and three gold V stripes).
It is anticipated that recent AFL players including Richmond premiership star Jack Riewoldt now back playing for his original club, Clarence, former Carlton and Brisbane Lions mid-fielder, Mitch Robinson (North Launceston), and ruckman Andrew Phillips (GIANTS/Carlton/Essendon), also back at his home club, Lauderdale, will play for their state.
Players that are expected to lead the charge for the combine are experienced Sydney University utility Harry Morrison (ex Sturt, SANFL), key North Shore defender Jake Veale (ex Swans Reserves and Sydney Uni NEAFL), and AFL Canberra duo Alex Smout (Eastlakes) and Aiden Bowyer (Queanbeyan).
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Players to watch, women’s match
Meanwhile, Sydney-Canberra senior women’s coach, Lloyd Perris, is confident of a strong performance by his chargers. “Our girls have been training hard and playing for their clubs, and this represents a great opportunity for the top players from each league to come together, transcend city boundaries, and show just how good they are on a larger stage,” he said.
“We are immensely proud of NSW and ACT’s history, and excited to write our own chapter in this story against formidable competition in Tasmania.”
Players to watch in the senior women’s team are East Coast Eagles athletic ruck Caitlin Reid, outside midfielder Olivia Fogarty (Ainslie), and North Shore’s Zoe Hurrell, who was best-on-ground in the representative match for AFL Sydney against Canberra.
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Back reppin’ and ready for the bounce
The representative match against Tasmania is the first time top players from AFL Sydney and AFL Canberra have had the opportunity to play representative football since COVID.
“These games provide the best players in our men’s and women’s competitions in Sydney and Canberra to play high-level, on an elite AFL ground, UTAS Stadium in Launceston,” said Community Football Regional Manger, Greater Sydney, Sam Zikman, who is coordinating arrangements for the game.
Zikman is planning for a full return to interstate football in the near future with involvement of football leagues in the Riverina, and if possible Broken Hill, but the first stage has been to draw Sydney and Canberra together.
Both ACT and NSW have a deep history of matches against Tasmania. ACT first played against Tasmania at the 1927 national carnival in Melbourne while NSW games against Tasmania stretch back to 1890 when the visitors beat the Light Blues on the SCG.
The final squads will be announced at team meetings for both sets of teams in Sydney and Canberra on Wednesday night with the Sydney-based players having a light run on the indoor ground at Swans HQ and the Canberra players training at Phillip Oval in Canberra then joining in by Zoom.
Former NSW captain-coach and St Kilda premiership hero, Barry Breen, will attend the Sydney session in person to talk to players in the men’s team about preparing for big games. The former North Shore premiership coach also represented Victoria during his 300 games for the Saints and played in three VFL grand finals.
Joining in the Zoom meeting from Canberra will be ACT legend Brian Quade, who represented both NSW and ACT, coached Queanbeyan to eight consecutive grand finals winning four premierships as well as coaching the ACT representative team for a decade winning the 1986 second division championships and significantly to a win over Tasmania in 1989.
Recent AFL NSW Hall of Fame inductee, Melinda Hyland, who this season chalked up her 350th first grade game and represented NSW on 34 occasions and ACT 22 times, will address the women’s squad by Zoom from her home in North Wagga.
The squads will travel to Launceston on Friday and will have a captain’s run on York Park in the afternoon in preparation for the clash on Saturday.
The Senior Women’s game will commence at 2:30 pm while the Senior Men’s match will start at 4:30 p.m.
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Stream the games live
For those who cannot make it to UTAS Stadium (York Park), Launceston on Saturday, 20 July both matches will be live streamed with commentary via AFL Sydney streaming partner, Streamer.
Click Here to access to the Streamer AFL Sydney landing page which also includes links to all live streamed matches in AFL Sydney during season 2024.
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