JUNIOR footballers from across the local leagues are well represented on the Bendigo Pioneers’ lists for this season.
The young guns will have a chance to represent the Pioneers and their local region in the Talent League after being named last weekend.
A total of 16 footballers from the Central Murray league were selected across four Pioneers teams, under-16s and under-18s for boys and girls.
Seven of the CMFNL’s 11 teams had a player chosen in the under-18 boys, while the under-16s list included five CMFNL players, two from the Golden Rivers league and one from the North Central.
Four local girls were chosen to represent the region, three from Woorinen, the other Nyah-Nyah West United.
Bendigo Pioneers talent lead Rick Coburn said this season’s list had a particularly strong north-west representation.
“The talent does ebb and flow from year to year, but this year particularly we’ve had really strong Swan Hill base,” he said.
“The squad is a really good representation of our entire region, but particularly in the Central Rivers leagues this year, which have been really strong.
“We’ve already had a really good start to our year, bringing in a large squad of under-16 and under-18 boys and girls in mid-November.
“The boys and girls have all come back in really good shape, and we’ve finished off the last parts of our fitness testing with our 2km time trial in Swan Hill a few weeks ago.
“We feel that we are in a really good position to move into the next phase of our program.”
Coburn said the Pioneers girls’ teams had grown stronger every year since the competition began in 2017.
“We don’t like to say girls players and boys players, they’re all footballers here,” he said.
“Every year the girls program gets better and better, and each year our team just gets stronger as we go.
“The girls’ game is evolving very quickly. We do face some challenges with participation in the north-west region, but it’s still in its early growth stages.
“We have some top-end talent in our female sides that we think have the ability to go quite well when it comes to the end of the year and draft night.
“We can see that the girls are becoming more football-orientated and are coming to us already as footballers.”
With selection criteria looking beyond football ability and including leadership and personal skills, Coburn said the character of this year’s group was “particularly high”.
“Our player development is holistic,” he said.
“We look at a number of qualities both on and off the field.
“Things like a player’s football fundamentals, their footy IQ, their character, what they’re like around the group and then their high-performance ability.
“We’ve been really fortunate to have had and to still have some really terrific young people in our program.”
The footballers have earned the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of former Pioneers such as Dustin Martin, Carlton’s sixth pick in the 2023 AFLW draft Lila Keck and 2023 AFL No.1 pick Harley Reid.
The list for the under-16 boys’ side will be cut from 50 players to 30 at the end of March.
BENDIGO PIONEERS LISTS
Under-18 Boys
Glen Gillbee – Balranald
Ryan Bassett – Koondrook-Barham
Koben Ryan – Lake Boga
Ethan Curran – Nyah-Nyah West United
Lachlan Vrolijks – Swan Hill
Patrick Blake – Tyntynder
Charlie King – Woorinen
Nick Thompson – Charlton
Under-18 Girls
Issy Boulton – Nyah-Nyah West United
Nevaeh Roberts – Woorinen
Sam Johnstone – Woorinen
Under-16 Boys
Willem Pye – Lake Boga
Bodhi Kelly – Swan Hill
Seamus Doherty – Swan Hill
Sonny Beasy – Swan Hill
Darcy Uebergang – Swan Hill
Archer Lancaster – Wandella
Rory Bell – Ultima
Cruz O’Sullivan – Sea Lake Nandaly
Under-16 Girls
Eva Coffey – Woorinen
