GV star confirmed for interleague battle

Goulburn Valley FL’s new co-coach is hell bent on beating its biggest football foe, as details of the upcoming interleague clash are locked in.

First-year Goulburn Valley co-coach Sam Reid will lead by example in ensuring it has the best possible team to take on arch rival Ovens and Murray this year.

The O&M has a 2-0 record from two games since the Covid interruptions, with the Echuca star joining Mark Lambourn in charge of the GV and declaring he will play.

The GV this week confirmed the May 25 match will be played at Deakin Reserve after the O&M won comfortably at Mooroopna two years ago and snuck home in a thriller at Albury last season.

Mark Lambourn will co-coach Goulburn Valley alongside Echuca’s Sam Reid this year. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Reid is among the GV’s top echelon of players, but injury has stopped him playing the previous two games against O&M.

He suffered a knee injury in the opening round of 2022 before tweaking his calf two weeks before last year’s game.

“One of my things coming back to country footy was to get more people involved around the history of representative footy and representing your league,” Reid said.

“Hopefully it does come back across all of Victoria.

“Hopefully we can also get away from having the weekend-off mentality from players and even the clubs themselves not wanting their best players playing in case they get injured.

“Echuca has always had a ‘go for it’, play the best footy you can, attitude.”

Sam Reid is going into his third season with Echuca in the Goulburn Valley league. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Reid played 108 AFL matches for the Western Bulldogs and Greater Western Sydney before joining Echuca in 2022.

Last year he was joint coach with Andrew Walker and Simon Maddox as the Murray Bombers completed back-to-back premiership wins.

They are hot favourites to become the first club to win three successive flags since Seymour won in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

POLL: Venue for @GVLeague v @omfnl interleague match in May expected to be finally revealed in coming days. GV is hosting. Where will it be played? @theweeklytimes@ctryfootyscores

— David Johnston (@david_johnston5) February 25, 2024

Over summer Reid and his brother Ben, who also plays for Echuca, started an academy for players coming out of under-18s where they did an extra training session every week.

“The boys love it,” Sam said.

“Sometimes it’s on Saturdays for a couple of hours and we just go over the basic fundamentals and techniques.

“Hopefully we can develop it into the whole region by the end of the year.”

Damian Sexton will coach the Ovens and Murray for a third successive year. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

Finley farmer Damian Sexton, who has coached the O&M to the two wins over GV, has been reappointed for a third season.