Hampden: Michael Barlow qualifies to play finals after off-season change to eligibility rules

Country footy clubs are watching closely whether VFL-listed players can return for flag assaults. See the players in the mix.

Former AFL star Michael Barlow hit the Hampden league’s new finals qualification mark last Saturday when he played his third match for premiership contender North Warrnambool.

Up until last season, a player only had to be registered with a club to play in the Hampden league finals series with the 37-year-old and another former AFL player Steven Motlop playing only two home and away games for the eventual runner-up before finals.

Also, Sydney VFL-listed player Nick Shipley only played the last round for Terang-Mortlake before three finals.

“We’ve fallen in line with a lot of other major leagues,” Hampden general manager Trent Hill said.

“We were a little unique in that if you were a registered player you could play senior finals.

“But after consultation with our clubs we felt we needed a by-law in place for finals qualification.

“We sat down with the clubs and landed on three games.”

North Warrnambool’ Michael Barlow marks in front of a Warrnambool opponent. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

Barlow, who played for Gold Coast and Fremantle in his AFL career and is presently the head of development at North Melbourne, first played for North Warrnambool in 2019.

Meanwhile, the premiers of the last two seasons, South Warrnambool won’t have the services at finals of Jay Rantall and Myles McCluggage with the duo playing more than 12 VFL matches for Geelong and Werribee respectively.

But Archie Stevens, who has played nine matches for Carlton VFL, remains in the mix as does Portland’s Jamieson Ballantyne, who has played 10 for Geelong.

The Gippsland league has allowed players who have played more than 12 VFL matches to play in its finals series in recent seasons.

Kyabram took a step closer to having star goalkicker Anthony Depasquale available for the Goulburn Valley league finals last Saturday.

He played his fourth match for the GV premiership favourites to be only one match short of being eligible.

Despasquale has played eight matches for VFL reigning premiers Werribee with his last match being three weeks ago.

Echuca’s VFL-listed players Logan Prout and AJ Mills have been ruled out for the rest of the season.

North Albury’s Joshua Murphy guaranteed his eligibility for finals when he played his ninth O&M match last Saturday. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

The Ovens & Murray has the toughest finals qualification rules of all major leagues with a VFL-listed player required to play nine O&M games to be eligible for September action.

North Albury’s Josh Murphy played his ninth game on Saturday after playing the previous two matches for Collingwood.

Teammate Foster Gardiner is sitting on seven games for North Albury after being called up by Werribee at the end of May.