Gold Coast Football Club has announced its side for the club’s VFL debut against Port Melbourne at 2.00pm on Saturday at Southport AFC.
B: Shaw Hutchins Gugliotta
HB: Hine Coad Weller
C: McKenzie Lock Russell
HF: Magin Dixon Matera
F: Patrick Ablett Liddy
R: Smith Harris Iles
Int: D Stanley Thompson Jolly
Swallow Shreeve Daye (e)
GCFC senior coach Guy McKenna says selecting the club’s first VFL line up was a testing exercise.
‘It wasn’t an easy task. We have to ask are these boys physically and mentally developed enough to handle football against men? We only had one trial game and intra-club form to guide us. But based on those games - as well as the fitness of individuals and their time in our program - in the end the players we chose put their hands up and selected themselves to an extent.”
McKenna says he’s excited by the national flavour of his squad.
"The squad has someone from every state represented. It’s exciting to know that although we are playing for the Gold Coast region, that the national nature of the competition is there for all to see.”
He said he is under no illusions about what lays ahead for his young list.
“This is about the development of these players. We need to turn them into bona-fide players. Port Melbourne will be a physical challenge. It’s definitely going to be a hard first up game for us, just like the whole VFL season will be tough. For some players it will be extremely physically draining – at some stage we’ll probably have to put a couple of them on ice – but that’s just part of the challenge we face. It’s not going to get any easier next year in the AFL. So the VFL is a fantastic competition for us to cut our teeth in.”
• Marc Lock, a Gold Coast local and product of Coolangatta Football Club, will captain GCFC’s first VFL side.
• WA duo David Swallow (brother of North Melbourne Best and Fairest Andrew Swallow) and Brandon Matera (nephew of West Coast legend Peter Matera) are playing.
• Former Cat Nathan Ablett, brother of Geelong superstar Gary Ablett, will line up at full forward.
• Talented Tasmanian young guns Maverick Weller and Luke Russell are in the starting eighteen.
• Exciting indigenous players Liam Patrick and Rex Liddy will occupy a forward pocket each. Patrick, the "Lajamanu Lightning Bolt", hails from Northern Territory. Liddy, a Daniel Motlop look-a-like, joined the club from Hope Vale in Far North Queensland.
• The squad includes seven Queenslanders, two South Australians, three Northern Territorians, two Tasmanians, two Western Australians and eleven Victorians.
• Only Daniel Harris (North Melbourne), Nathan Ablett (Geelong), Danny Stanley and Sam Iles (both Collingwood) have played AFL
Click here to see the full 2010 VFL fixture.
Or click here for more game day info
