Junior Outback Training Squad announced Victoria gets Snubbed

On behalf of Gridiron Australia (GA) the Australian Junior Outback Facebook page announced the first round of selections for the Junior Outback Training Squad team. The Junior Outback team will be off to China in July 2016 which were awarded the Under 19 World Championships by IFAF back in November.

You may notice on the list of players that there were no Victorian players selected for the train on squad, why is this?

First lets take a look at how this team was selected, Head Coach Luke Chapman and Team Manager & Assistant Coach Michael Kerr travelled around Australia and ran training combines in each state except of course for Victoria.

We were told this is because until Gridiron Victoria (GV) are a member of GA, players are ineligible for selection, if you are unaware GA suspended GV some time ago due to disagreement between registration, insurance, financial transparency & future direction of the sport.

This is all fine and the fact that GV is not an active member of GA is a good reason why no Victorians were selected for the team except for one thing, Victorians were selected for Mens National team and there will be 40 plus Victorian players attending the Womens National Team Training Camp in Feb… So what is the difference?!?

I can’t for the life of me work it out, is it because the junior team is not run by Bring it on Sports? like the senior teams are, I have no idea?

This is an extremely hypocritical decision by GA, basically if you are under 19 you can’t play for Australia if you are Victorian but if you are an adult you can play.

I hope the people at GA behind this disgraceful decision resign from their positions or allow junior Victorians to play like their adult counterparts can.

Congratulations to all the players selected:

AUSTRALIAN CAPTIAL TERRITORY

• Hayden Clark
• Dale Haskew
• Keiran Reilly
• Shawn Stewart
• James Thornhill

NEW SOUTH WALES

• Rinaldo Gagiano
• Adam Goddard
• Jamie Goddard
• Patrick Olaaiga
• Robert Pahulu
• Mario Romero
• Alex Whitehead
• Mitchell Whitehead

QUEENSLAND

• Billy Blackburn
• Jack Capewell
• Bryce Coulson
• Tristan Ellis
• Jacob Farrell
• Reece Fearnside
• Tyler Ferdinands
• Mackenzie Ferries
• Jason Gough
• Benjamin Graham
• Jake Graham
• Jordan Hulls
• Sam Italiano
• Ben Kari-Kari
• John Kari-Kari
• Jordan Macleod
• Dylan Menti
• Connor Napier
• Will Outridge
• Nicholas Ray
• Griffin Roberts
• Luke Simpson
• Sio Sonny Nofoagototoa
• Jason Sparks
• Caleb Spinks
• Lachlan Torrisi
• Tagloasa Taito
• Jacob Toia
• Daniel Wilkins

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

• Sebastion Burford
• Branden Duncan
• Curtis Herrick

TASMANIA

• Seth Jackson
• Josh Rice
• Brody Fussell
• Aiden Fenney

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

• Domonic Allison
• Kyle Bateman
• Will Bevan
• Luke Butler
• Sam Caughey
• Mitchell Cavanagh
• Liam Crookes
• Mitchell Crookes
• Luke Davies
• Carlin Flood
• Chris Gale
• Bradley Krzywosinski
• William Macris
• Nikolai Price
• Lachlan Poor
• Phoenix Richards
• Rhian Ryan
• Jordan Stirling
• James Vincent
• Brendon Wickham