Third Parish moves on to the AFL pathway
FINLAY Parish, the younger brother of Darcy and Cassidy, will make his Geelong Falcons debut tomorrow as the reigning premier tries to break its winless run against Eastern Ranges.
Coach Daniel O’Keefe has been impressed by the third Parish, who made his senior GFL debut for Grovedale last season.
“There’s actually four Parishes all up and Finlay is the third,” O’Keefe said.
“He’s come a long, long way in the last few years through the Falcons program and developed maybe more than any other player I’ve seen.
“He’s turned himself into a workhorse. He probably doesn’t test really well but he’s a hard runner and a strong gut runner, and more that hit-up forward type who gets up the ground and tries to beat them back as well.
“He’s fairly good defensively, too, in the forward half, which is something that we’re after this week.”
Parish will line up next to Blake Schlensog, the 198cm ruckman-turned-forward, who is pushing for a Vic Country debut.
Meanwhile, 200cm premiership ruckman Dane Hollenkamp has also been reinvented, sent into defence to make him a more draftable prospect for AFL clubs.
“He’s been floated back to centre half-back and fullback and we think he’s a more draftable player there,” O’Keefe said of Hollenkamp.
“His speed is exceptional. When we did the Maribyrnong testing day, he was consistently our quickest over 20m. For someone who is 200cm, that gets people looking and creates interest.
“It’s a really big change of focus for these boys, and we’ll move forward with that development aspect of their games for the rest of the year most likely.”
Sam Walsh comes back, but Ned McHenry and Charlie Sprague will go into the APS program.
Fletcher Wilson also makes his Falcons debut, while Jack Grigsby returns after 12 months away from the game with concussion.
O’Keefe said his side was ready for its first win, playing the bottom-placed Ranges.
“I think we’ve got better every week,” he said.
“We’ve won as many quarters as we have lost.
“We’ve had some great leadership sessions this week at training and I think we’ve got a really solid team in that will match up well against Eastern.”
The match will be played at Avalon Airport Oval, Werribee, at 11.15am. TEAM