Handley Skipper, Iezzi Vice

Old Xaverians spearhead Matthew Handley has been named as captain of the VAFA senior representative side with Woodrow Medallist Brendan Iezzi being named as the vice-captain for the match against the Northern Football League in Saturday’s AFL Victoria Metro Championships.

The players were informed in a small meeting at last nights training session at Sportscover Arena.

Handley is the most experienced representative player in the squad, this will be Handley’s seventh senior match for the Big V and his tenth jumper in total. His appointment makes him the seventh Old Xaverians player to lead the Big V and the first since Tim Fleming six years ago.

“It is an unbelievable honour to lead the Big V, I have always loved playing representative football and am simply happy to be be selected in the side, but this just tops it off” said a very humble Handley.

“There are so many great leaders and plenty of experience amongst us, it could have been anyone of us.”

“This will be a pretty intense game for this time of the year, but we went through that last year with the EFL and we were able to overcome them in the end so hopefully we can get the same result on Saturday” Handley said.

Handley praised the transition of the new coaching group and welcomed the new faces in the squad.

“It’s been good, the guys have been excellent and the change over from Lethas has been very smooth, the message from Kempo and Robbo has been consistent and the group is right behind them.”

“It’s important to include the new faces to the team and picking players on form and and availability is always important to getting the right balance in the side” said Handley.

Iezzi has played three times for the senior Big V for a total of 8 representative jumpers and is the reigning Woodrow Medallist.

Drizzling rain was not a deterrent to the final 30 players (final squad of 30 is is below) who strut their stuff in the side’s penultimate session before their clash with the NFL. The players trained in Big V jumpers for the first time and despite the greasy conditions the skills were again on show. Of the final 30, 13 players played in the corresponding match last year against the EFL, including both Iezzi and Handley.

There are a number of headaches still facing selectors though, the first of which is whether two players Cam Williams (Uni Blues) and Tyson Kruse (Uni Blacks) will be required by Richmond VFL this weekend or whether both players will get the chance to earn their second Big V jumper. This question should be cleared up by Wednesday afternoon.

The second headache is how to inform the unlucky six players that they have not made the final 24.

The coaching panel met at the end of Tuesday’s session to discuss the final team and how they might line up, with a number of players in line to make their senior debut

The final session will be held on Thursday and the selection team were keeping their cards close to their chest about just who might make the final 24. The final squad of 30 is is below.

The VAFA’s final session will see the players return to Collingwood’s Westpac Centre.

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