Gippsland: All-Star under-25 match to be played at Traralgon

Morwell’s Boyd Bailey and Warragul’s Jed Lamb will be opposing coaches in a historic match in Gippsland this month. Read how it will work.

Two playing coaches will forego a weekend off to spearhead the teams competing in the inaugural Gippsland league All-Star under-25s match this month.

Morwell’s Boyd Bailey will coach the team consisting of players from Bairnsdale, Maffra, Sale, Traralgon and Morwell and Warragul’s Jed Lamb will draw on players from Moe, Leongatha, Wonthaggi, Drouin and Warragul.

Bailey hopes the match, to be played at Traralgon on May 20, will be the catalyst for Gippsland to play another major league in the state next year after talks with Bendigo about a match broke down over summer.

Gippsland league All Star team coaches, Warragul's Jed Lamb and Morwell's Boyd Bailey. Picture: Supplied

Interleague football has been slow to emerge from the two years wiped out by Covid with only Ovens and Murray and Goulburn Valley playing last year at Mooroopna with a follow-up game at Albury on the same day as the Gippsland All-Star clash.

“Representative footy is something we’ve gone away from a little bit, especially in the country, over the past five years or so,” Bailey said.

“This will be a good idea to showcase our league and also good to get a bit of representative footy back for players to strive for as well.

“It would be good to get back to playing different leagues during these weeks off.

“It is also good being under-25s because once you get out of under-18s there isn’t a lot of representative footy played.”

Leongatha’s Jenson Garnham soars over Sale’s Hudson Holmes on Saturday. Garnham kicked 11 goals in the Parrots’ big win. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

The Gippsland league is flush with promising talent this season including Leongatha recruit Jenson Garnham who booted a record 11 goals for his club on Saturday.

The in-house concept is the first of its kind in a major league in Victoria with added innovations of the match being 16 a side (no wings) plus interchange players and 20-minute quarters.

League general manager Daniel Heathcote said it was a “huge coup” to get two current coaches prepared to be part of the match being played on a general bye weekend.

“There has been a great buy-in from the players so far with both teams nearing completion from the initial invited players,” he said.

“It’s a huge coup for the event to secure current senior coaches to lead these teams and especially to have these two candidates be top players among the league also adds to the benefits for the players of each team.

“Ultimately, we are aiming for a return to senior footy and netball interleague at some stage and hopefully if this event gets a positive response we can incorporate both programs into the schedule.”

Warragul coach Jed Lamb led his team to victory over Morwell on Saturday in the Gippsland league. Picture: Supplied

Another current Gippsland senior coach, Moe’s Declan Keilty is also involved on the day as coach one of the junior teams made up of under-18s and under-16s players.

Former Maffra star Adrian Burgiel will coach the other team.

Bailey and Lamb were opposing coaches last Saturday with Warragul coming from behind at three-quarter time to win by 10 points.