Out of the bog… into the fire

By RUSSELL BENNETT
NICK Scanlon is nothing if not adaptable.
The Narre Warren Football Club playing assistant and vice captain thought he’d missed out on a berth in the Victoria 1 side at the Australian Country Football carnival on the weekend.
When he woke on Monday morning last week to a voicemail from team selectors letting him know he made the side, he was shocked. He didn’t even know he was an emergency.
But by Wednesday morning, he was meeting his team mates at Southern Cross railway station for a four-and-a-half hour trip to Wagga. And by Sunday afternoon, he’d been named on the half-back line in the All-Australian side made up of the carnival’s standout performers. Not bad for a player who started the championships as a midfield half-forward.
Scanlon’s role changed mid-tournament when Vic 1 coach and Hawthorn legend Peter Knights’ hand was forced by an injury to one of his most dependable backmen.
But the Narre Magpies star didn’t miss a beat in his new role – he was just honoured to be wearing the Big V for a third time.
Knights instilled in his side a strong sense of state pride, and it worked, with Vic 1 winning by 68 points, 14.13 (97) to 4.5 (29) in an all-Victorian championship grand final against Vic 2.
Scanlon teamed with regular Casey Cardinia foe Justin Berry to knock-off Kain Baskaya’s Vic 2 side.
And the Magpies vice captain had no trouble in laying a block on the big spearhead in one of the game’s lighter moments.
“I had to block Kain but I didn’t lay a heavy hit on him,” a wise Scanlon said.
The Casey Cardinia standouts were joined by a host of other local talent in the competition, with Emerald coach Josh Taylor and captain Caillin Porter joined by Warragul Industrials’ star Shane Brewster, Beaconsfield’s Daniel Mislicki, Tooradin-Dalmore’s Beau Miller and Matthew Wade, Nar Nar Goon’s Brett Dore, Bunyip’s Nathan Lieshout and Cora Lynn’s Brendan Kimber in the Vic 2 side.
Taylor joined Scanlon in receiving All-Australian honours, while Porter was named Vic 2’s Best Team Player.
Porter said Vic 2 achieved its goal of making the championship decider, despite a “disappointing” result.
He said he was happy playing on a top-quality playing surface at Wagga’s McPherson Oval, as opposed to the boggy marsh of Emerald’s Chandler Reserve.