How Northern league club Bundoora secured a second ex-AFL player

Northern Football League power Bundoora has secured a second ex-AFL player thanks to some key connections at the club.

As the famous saying goes ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ and it helped Bundoora land ex-AFL defender Neville Jetta.

Jetta, the retired Melbourne star, will link up with the NFL Division 1 club in 2022 when he’s not required at AFL or VFL level as a coach and player at Collingwood.

Strong connections helped deliver the 32-year-old to Yulong Reserve.

Bundoora coach Michael Ryan revealed another saying ‘location, location, location’ was also a factor.

“There’s a connection at the club with David Rigney, who’s son Alex has come to play senior football with us this season,” Ryan said.

“Alex played as a 23rd man for us against Greensborough last year as an under-17 and he’ll play with us when he’s not at Eastern Ranges.

“Through Dave and also Neville has a connection with Kane Proctor.

“He lives in Bundoora as well, so when we began training in November Nev started coming down when time permitted with his VFL commitments.

“On the back of that, probably about two weeks ago he said he was happy to align with Bundoora but how many games we see out of Neville we’re still unsure.

“He’s got AFL responsibilities as a development coach at Collingwood and then also VFL responsibilities as a player and line coach at Collingwood’s VFL program, so he’s pretty busy.”

Jetta is the second ex-AFL star to link up with Bundoora this season, joining Essendon best-and-fairest winner David Zaharakis.

Former Richmond and Western Bulldogs forward Sam Lloyd is in his second season at the club.

While Jetta might not be available often this season, Ryan sees it as an investment in the future.

Neville Jetta in action for Melbourne.

“We think the biggest benefit of having Neville on board is from a leadership and coaching perspective on the training track and hopefully from 2023 and beyond we might be able to see more of him,” he said.

“The last couple of weeks he’s really started to feel comfortable among the group and started to speak up and offered plenty of IP.

“He was a brilliant footballer at the Demons and he knows the craft really well and along with our backline coach Neil Gloury our backs have got a lot more education.

“Neville might be available for between three to five games but at the end of the day it’s all subjective at the moment.

“The VFL haven’t released a full fixture at the moment, it’s a bit of a rolling fixture in terms of the way Collingwood has set their matchdays, so we’re sort of in their hands.

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“Any game he is available we definitely look forward to having him play for us.”

Bundoora ramped up its Round 1 preparations with a practice match against St Kevin’s earlier this month, matching it with the VAFA heavyweight.

The Bulls have also scheduled a final hitout against EDFL side Greenvale.

The Bulls kick off the season against reigning Northern Football League “minor premier” West Preston-Lakeside.