Grandson of a gun: Toby Wooller playing with Brisbane Lions after being a second-round draft selection to the club in 2017. He played with Carlton’s VFL team in 2021, but sat out the 2022 season. Photo: Brisbane Lions
Cats legend: Geelong’s 1963 grand final captain Fred Wooller, with the premiership cup. His grandson Toby Woller will play with Kyabram this season, who was coached by Wooller in the 1970s.
A pair of recent AFL draftees will join Kyabram’s senior football ranks for the 2023 Goulburn Valley league season and one is a familiar name at Bomberland.
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Toby Wooller, a 193cm (6 feet 4 inch) mobile utility has signed on to play with the club that his grandfather Fred Wooller coached in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the same competition.
Wooller, 23, had a season off this year, but was originally drafted by the Brisbane Lions and was a member of the club’s premiership-winning side in the NEAFL in 2020.
He played for Carlton’s VFL side last year and finished third in its best and fairest award, but had this year off.
In his junior career he played with Camberwell Sharks before joining Oakleigh Chargers in the NAB League, captaining that side and winning its best-and-fairest award in 2017.
He beat top 10 draft pick Jack Higgins, originally of Richmond and now at St Kilda, for that title and also played alongside Bulldog half back Ted Richards and Hawthorn ruckman Ned Reeves.
Wooler’s grandfather captained and coached Kyabram in 1969, 1970 and 1971 after playing 132 games with Geelong, which he captained to the 1963 Cats VFL premiership.
He kicked three goasls in that game, before joining Penguin in Tasmania on a lucrative deal.
Fred led the Bombers into the grand final in 1970, which they lost to Lemnos (now Shepparton Swans).
In the other recruiting coup Will Golds, 22, has named the Bombers as his affiliate club.
He currently plays for Essendon in the VFL competition, alongside Rochester’s Joe Atley, but is keen to get some games in with Kyabram in 2023.
Atley was best and fairest for Essendon’s VFL team this year.
Originally from the Oakleigh Chargers, Golds was pick 30 in the 2018 draft by Hawthorn, but he was delisted in 2020 after two bouts of knee surgeries.
A midfielder who was a star with Scotch College in the APS competition, he played with Montmorency in the Northern Football League in 2021 and this year with Essendon’s VFL side.
Wooller and Golds will join former Kyabram and GVL star Liam Ogden with the Bombers next season.
With key forwards Kyle Mueller and Brad Mangan set to return there is growing optimism the Bombers could be a formidable side again.
Running man: Will Golds was drafted to Hawthorn in 2018, regularly finishing among its top three in two and three-kilometre time trials. Last season he played with Essendon in the VFL.
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