Vic Country selectors make the tough call on initial squad

THE first person Victoria Country coach Peter Knights called after selecting this year’s initial squad was Tim Looby.

Changes: Last year’s Vic Country No. 1 captain Tim Looby and vice-captain Grant Weeks were among those missing from this year’s Vic Country initial squad.

THE first person Victoria Country coach Peter Knights called after selecting this year’s initial squad was Tim Looby.

A 37-man squad, which will be eventually whittled down to a team to tackle Vic Metro on July 10, was released today.

The initial squad includes only five players who won the Brian Molony Cup for Vic Country No. 1 under Knights last year against the Victorian Amateur Football Association.

READ MORE:Vic Country squad announced

Among those missing are last year’s vice-captain Grant Weeks, who is yet to play his first game for Colbinabbin this year after undergoing ankle surgery in the off-season, and Vic Country No. 1 captain the past two years, Looby.

Looby, from Shepparton United, represented the Goulburn Valley league in its four-point loss to the Essendon District league last month in the AFL Victoria Community Championships, but missed out on selection for the country squad.

Knights said the selectors “had about 90 names to sift through” after the championships.

“There is no doubt they’re two big holes to fill. Tim Looby has been a marvellous ambassador for Vic Country footy, his passion, his commitment, his total commitment to Vic Country has been unquestioned,” Knights said.

“Even though he played interleague footy, I spoke to him and gave him the news that unfortunately we weren’t able to include him in our training squad this year.

“It gives you a bit of an indication how competitive, how tough, it was when we as selectors had to make that call.

“After we selected the squad the first person that I rang was Tim Looby because I’ve got total respect for him, and I just needed to talk to him about it and he, as I expected, took it on the chin.”

Newtown and Chilwell Football Club’s Rob Condy, Traralgon’s Mark Collison, Drouin’s Bob McCallum, Rochester’s Steven Stroobants and Albury’s Brayden O’Hara are the only players in the squad who played for Vic Country No. 1 last year.

Others had represented Vic Country in previous years, Knights said, but there was also “a lot of new faces, which is great, new guys get an opportunity”.

He said a number of factors went into selections to get a mix of positions, experience and youth.

Selections were dominated by players from major leagues, led by the Geelong and Goulburn Valley leagues with six players each, and the Bendigo, Peninsula and Ovens and Murray leagues with five apiece.

However there were no players selected from leagues west of the Ballarat league, including the Hampden league, or from leagues in Victoria’s northwest, including the Sunraysia league.

“It’s just the way it fell,” Knights said

“It’s probably the first time in a number of years we haven’t had anyone from the Hampden league. Sunraysia, there’s usually one or maybe two, but I guess it’s just indicative of the strength of those big leagues,” he said.

“When we played against Vic Metro two years ago, the thing we always have to be conscious of is the players that are selected in the squad are regularly playing against quality opposition, quality players, which are regarded as the best in country footy, so that will always be a little bit of a criteria we use as well.

“But we don’t look at having to get representation from every league, we literally try to pick what we believe are the best players in various positions, and then the way it falls.”