THE FRESHER THE BETTER?

The outcome of the Gippsland League match of the round on Saturday was one I was watching closely.

There’s never any love lost between Traralgon and Maffra that went into the game at Traralgon playing for second place on the ladder. Maffra won. What was the centre of my interest was the fact that the previous week, when the inter-league match against Bendigo was played, Traralgon had eight players in the Gippsland side.

Surprisingly, Maffra had none.

The Eagles’ previous game against Moe must have been a lot more bruising than their winning margin of 47 points suggests.

There were no players that would have come under serious consideration for inter-league selection missing from Maffra’s side last Saturday.

The week’s rest may have made the Eagles “fresher” than Traralgon.

There is no point trying to compel players to play inter-league but clubs and the players should be mindful that part of the strength of any league, and all clubs, is having everybody pulling in one direction.

Good to see VFL clubs releasing players to turn out with their home clubs when possible.

They are predominantly young players testing themselves at a higher level.

The opportunity for them to return “home” doesn’t happen too often during the season but there were several that were able to do so at the weekend.

Tom Muir and Kody Wilson, playing VFL with Casey Scorpions, took the field for Warragul; Luke Duffy (Port Melbourne) had his second game for the year with Drouin, and Simon Deery, on Western Bulldogs’ VFL list, was able to return to Bairnsdale.

Wilson’s home club is not actually Warragul, but Neerim Neerim South.

However, with South having the bye in the EDFL on Saturday it agreed to clear Wilson to the Gulls during the week so he could play.

He’ll be cleared back to NNS this week.