By DAVID NAGEL
GENERATING life-long friendships and testing your ability against the best from around the state… that’s what representative football means to this year’s Casey Cardinia under-18s leaders in Stuart Batten and Mick O’Brien.
Batten and O’Brien, who will mentor the cream of the CCFL crop against the Bellarine on 24 May, both played the game hard, Batten a feared on-baller and defender for Doveton, while O’Brien was tough in the clinches and won many a hard-ball for his beloved Hampton Park.
And they both loved the experience of playing interleague football.
“I don’t think people understand the importance of interleague football anymore,” Batten says with a real passion.
“It’s important to both of us, important for the brand of the CCFL, and important for these players to play the highest standard of football they can and, who knows, they might make some great friends out of the experience.”
The under-18 squad will train separate from the senior squad, tonight and next Wednesday, before joining some of the real big names of Casey Cardinia football in the week leading up to the match.
The junior and senior squads train tonight and next Wednesday, on separate grounds at Beaconsfield’s Holm Park Road before a Tuesday/Thursday build-up into the big weekend of footy.
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