It’s time for a spin on the usual GVL Data breakdowns as interleague looms this weekend at Deakin Reserve.
The annual representative fixture is, for many, a chance at impressing on a grander stage than usual and bringing home some glory for one’s local area.
For coaches, it shapes as a welcome chance to give sore bodies an extra week off to take on the next block of the league season.
For the Goulburn Valley League’s upper echelon, the game will serve as yet another chance to break a run of iron-fisted supremacy with which the Ovens and Murray has governed this annual match-up for more than a decade.
How many of each league’s absolute best and brightest will take the stage after the first two months of their respective competitions, though?
Number of each league’s top five stat getters named for interleague (GVL vs O&M)
Disposals: 1-1
Goals: 3-1
Inside 50s: 0-3
Marks: 2-2
Contested marks: 4-1
The GVL contingent has only named two of its top 10 disposal-getters for the interleague clash, with top ball-winner Coby McCarthy of Mooroopna unavailable.
It’s a similar picture in terms of contested ball, with the Goulburn Valley’s top five — including Shepparton star Adam Decicco, who was highlighted by GVL Data earlier this week — all out of the side.
Seymour’s Nathan Beattie earned the late nod and could form a crucial link between defence and midfield, averaging 35.5 disposals, 11.8 contested possessions and five intercepts per game.
Mooroopna’s Keelin Betson figures as a likely dual threat around stoppages as the GVL’s second ruck, with Bears big man Bryce Stephenson expected to reprise his role from last year’s clash.
Their competition in the middle will be Wangaratta Rovers ruck Will Christie, who sits sixth for hitouts in the O&M with 148.
It could be a vastly different story inside the arcs, however, where the side in orange and purple looks universally threatening on paper.
Three of the top four GVL goalkickers — Cats spearhead Daniel Johnston, white-hot Bomber Anthony Depasquale and prolific Lion Riley Mason — should all comprise part of a tantalising forward line at Deakin Reserve.
Of the breakaway trio leading the O&M’s goalkicking stakes, only North Albury’s Josh Minogue receives a berth in the team, with ex-Richmond and Carlton forward Callum Moore — who leads the league in both goals and score involvements — absent from the squad.
Aerial threats also have the potential to favour the locals, with Depasquale leading all comers in contested marks and expecting to take to the skies frequently on Saturday.
Echuca’s Liam Tenace and Mansfield’s Dirk Koenen, also named in the side, sit comfortably among the front-runners in this category as well, presenting clunking options up front and in defence.
Speaking of defence, late call-up Kyle Clarke of Shepparton United will seek to build on his output from the close 2023 loss, where he pivoted the ball well with seven marks and five rebound 50s at 81 per cent disposal efficiency.
Mansfield’s Harry Mahoney should take his place in midfield as one of two players in the 2024 GVL team who racked up double-figure contested possessions, with Bryce Stephenson the other.
With the news that reigning Morrison medallist Jack O’Sullivan is now confirmed not to return to his old stomping grounds following the O&M’s senior team announcement on Thursday, there is something of an absence of top-level grunt in the travelling contingent.
Lavington’s William Glanville and former Adelaide and Brisbane Lions utility Cam Ellis-Yolmen could have been set to form an imposing on-ball duo, but Thursday’s team confirmation omitted both from the final side.