Werribee has a competition-high eight players named in the Victorian Football League representative squad, while Williamstown has two players selected.
The VFL announced a 50-player squad ahead of its highly-anticipated return to representative football when it takes on the South Australian National Football League during the AFL Gather Round next month.
The teams will play on April 6, when the best players from both competitions face off during gather round, which is a festival of footy, which will take place in South Australia.
The match marks the first senior men’s representative clash between the VFL and SANFL since 2016 and the VFL’s first representative match since 2017.
The VFL squad features many of the best VFL-listed players with 19 of the 21 clubs represented. AFL-listed players, including rookie-listed players, are not eligible to be selected.
Werribee leads the way with eight representatives named in the squad, followed by the Southport Sharks (six) and Port Melbourne (four).
Dom Brew, Nathan Cooper, Kye Declase, Hudson Garoni, Nick Hayes, Jack Henderson, Sam Paea and Louis Pinnuck are the Werribee players in the squad,
Williamstown ruck Tom Downie and new recruit Brodie McLaughlin are in the squad as are Footscray Bulldogs’ Trent Bianco, Josh Chatfield and Phoenix Spicer.
Box Hill Hawks coach Zane Littlejohn has been appointed head coach.
A final squad of 23 players to represent the ‘Big V’ in the league’s first representative appearance in seven years will be announced closer to the match.
Players from outside the squad of 50 will still be eligible for selection in the final squad, with form across the opening two rounds of the VFL season to be taken into consideration.
