Spotswood captain Chris O’Keefe is looking forward to the pre-season tournament on Sunday. 67505 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By MICHAEL ESPOSITO
SPOTSWOOD coach Chris O’Keefe will use the “Best of the Best” pre-season tournament this Sunday like most competing clubs are likely to – to test out the bulk of the playing list.
The WRFL reigning champion will test itself against eight other Melbourne metropolitan and Victorian country league premiers to vie for the title of best local footy team in Victoria.
No team is expected to take the competition for bragging rights too seriously, but the $10,000 prize pool for the winner is a handy incentive, and teams have certainly shown enthusiasm about the concept, now in its second year.
“I think it’s quite exciting, I know that from our point of view everybody is certainly looking forward to playing a few games against the best teams from other leagues,” O’Keefe said.
“It is very exciting for the players, but in saying that as well it’s still only the pre-season and its certainly not for any premiership points.
“We’re all looking forward to having a bit of fun and comparing how we line up at this time of the year against some quality opposition from around the Melbourne area.”
O’Keefe said almost all players in the squad will compete in the round-robin competition in Bulleen Park, and is particularly keen on playing some of the club’s new recruits, such as former Ainslie key position player Ben Perry and on-baller Christian Elliot.
But he said the tournament would fall short of being an accurate gauge of the club’s relative strength against teams from other leagues.
“It is pretty hard given that is in the pre-season and its not when everybody is at their peak, but in saying that quality clubs are quality clubs and a lot of the time they’re going to be very, very strong.
“You can take a little bit out of it but you cant get too hung up on what happens from it because if you do that you can be very quickly brought back to reality.”
All teams will play three games of two 20-minute halves, with teams advancing to the semi-finals. The first games will played at 11am.
Shepparton United is favourite to take out the tournament at $2.75, according to Betstar, followed by Scoresby ($4), Bundoora ($4.50), Strathmore ($5), Bell Park (7.50) Spotswood sixth ($9), Romsey ($11), Cranbourne ($17) and St Paul’s ($17).
