TIMELY SIGNING BOOSTS BACKLINE
DANIEL Measures will be hoping to add a 10th premiership medallion to his collection after joining Bannockburn in one of the key off-season signings in the GDFL.
Measures, 31, signed with the Tigers on Wednesday night but has only completed three sessions over the pre-season after the recent arrival of his fourth child.
The champion defender played with Portarlington in 2019 and said he had been weighing up a move closer to home in Meredith since November.
“I was hoping to stay at Port — or at least in Geelong somewhere — but I think just the Bannockburn travel time really sold it for us,” he said.
Measures played in Queenscliff’s hat-trick of flags between 2011 and 2013, when he was named in the best in each decider, before adding another three premiership medals to his collection with St Joseph’s in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
He also played in three flags with West Alice Springs in the Central Australian Football League while growing up in the Northern Territory.
Measures said it was a difficult decision to leave Portarlington for Bannockburn, where his brother-in-law Mark Banks plays.
“Just because I’d just moved there, started to get to know the boys and I really wanted to stick around and help try and build the culture up a little bit,” he said.
“It just wasn’t meant to be because we weren’t planning to have four kids. We got a little bit of a surprise and that’s changed a lot of things.”
His signature at Victoria Park gives Bannockburn another key signing as part of its flag defence.
It also secured Whitley medallist Matt James from Bell Post Hill in August last year.
“I’m still playing all right, the body’s feeling good and I’ve been really lucky with injuries,” Measures said.
“I’ve kept wanting to play as high as I could. The GDFL’s not a bad league, it’s just that timewise it makes more sense for us.”