THE MURRAY Bushrangers head into season 2025 with eyes on being fresh throughout the year, having altered the region’s preseason program. A total of six players are part of the Vic Country and Allies hubs, while several over-agers have completed VFL preseasons. Coach Mark Brown helps preview the year ahead.

PRESEASON

“It’s a little bit like Groundhog Day when you’ve been in it for a while. It’s a lot of talent ID and a lot of fitness work. But look, the squad’s coming together as it always does for us. We’ve stayed in hubs more so this year. A lot of our talent in the squad lies around the Albury area… throughout the preseason we’ve kept them training at our Wodonga base. As a result we’ll probably be a little bit clunky early in the year until the boys get familiar with each other, but we see the benefit long-term. Come the middle of the year our boys are starting to get pretty tired if they’ve been [travelling]. You’ve got to give something to get something, so we give up a little bit of team connection to keep these boys out of cars and hopefully have them tracking okay, come July, August.”

TOP-AGE VIC COUNTRY/ALLIES MEMBERS

Ryder Corrigan (Allies)
Inside Midfielder | 186cm | 14/03/2007

“Ryder Corrigan’s a tough inside mid, All Australian at Under 16’s level. He played every game with us as a bottom-ager and had some really impressive moments. He’s in the Allies hub with Liam Hetherton and Harrison Wilson.”

Harry Dean (Vic Country)
Tall Defender | 193cm | 13/11/2007

Carlton F/S

“Had a completely interrupted year last year. He played 10 minutes of footy with us, it was an impressive 10 minutes of footy. He took a couple of intercept marks, had about half a dozen possessions and then of course fractured his upper arm quite significantly. He’s been really diligent with his rehab and his recovery. It’s probably provided him the opportunity to jump in the gym and do a lot of work around his running technique… He’s looked really good at Vic Country Hub, obviously he’s Carlton father-son and he’s progressing well. We just want to see him play, he’s got to actually start to get some continuity in his football so fingers crossed he has a bit of luck with injury and he gets a good run at it. If he gets a good run at it he’ll continue that trajectory up and I think you’ll see he’s quite a player.”

>> Q&A: Harry Dean (Murray Bushrangers)

Liam Hetherton (Allies)
Key Forward | 197cm | 02/05/2007

AFL Academy

“Based in Albury… he developed rapidly last year. As a key forward he was obviously caught behind the Whitlock brothers (Jack and Matt), leading goalkicker [Josh] Murphy and Joe Berry, so he didn’t have a great deal of opportunity last year. We jammed 10-12 games into him, so he still played plenty of football, but in terms of getting ball directed through him, he probably didn’t have as much as we’d like. That being said, the way he came on late in the season… he’s progressing quickly and improving quickly.”

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Riley Onley (Vic Country)
Midfielder | 194cm | 30/03/2007

AFL Academy

“Riley is based in Shepparton but he’s at private school, so we don’t see a great deal of him. The times we have seen him, he’s done the work. He looks fantastic. 194cm, he’s moving well, he looks fit, he looks strong. He’s in training with Collingwood’s VFL program at the moment and they’ve been fantastic with us and allowing Riley to train. He’s obviously in the National Academy as well… everything points to a good season, now it’s just a matter of executing.”

Harrison Wilson (Allies)
Defender | 189cm | 03/01/2007

“He’s at Scotch College like Riley Onley and he’s in at Richmond doing their VFL preseason, which has been great for us… From all accounts he’s been training the house down. We obviously saw him for a small period pre-Christmas when he was back from school. About 190cm, he looks bigger, he looks stronger, he’s such a beautiful mover, such a beautiful user of the ball. In a bit of match sim with the Tiges they’ve been really impressed by the way he moves and uses the ball.”

ONES TO WATCH

“We’ve got a couple we think will be putting their hand up off the back of some performances once season starts. Lenny Koller is a key back. He played 14 games as a bottom-ager last year. Played on Jobe Shanahan, played on some very good players. So he’s had a baptism of fire as a bottom-ager – no different to what Matt Whitlock had. We think it stacks them up really well for their top-age year. Lenny looks good, looks strong, looks fast.

“Little Cody Gardiner played in the NSW-Vic Country Under 17s game last year. Was really good as a small back. We’ll do more small forward with him… Ryan Ash is Lachie Ash‘s younger brother. He’s had a finger injury the last couple of weeks but he’s been improving. He doesn’t have the size or the power of Lachie yet, but these kids mature at different rates. There’s always a couple of them that emerge, so we just wait and see now. They’ve got to execute.”

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RETURNING OVER-AGERS

“We are trying to push most of our over-agers into VFL programs. We did a review of our program at the end of last year and we thought the gap with us was how much we’re exposing them to the next level of [VFL] footy. The tyranny of distance makes that difficult for us, but we’ve got to get away from using that as an excuse. We’ve got to find a way to do it.

“Ben Kennedy, who played a few Allies games last year, he’s now at Williamstown. He’ll come back to us as a 19-year-old when he’s not required there. Zac Harding has done a VFL preseason at Carlton and he’ll play with us when he’s available and injury free. Coen Ainsworth, who’s a Wodonga boy, he’s mid-December born. His first year in the program was as an 18-year-old, so he didn’t have the luxury of a bottom-age year. Athletically he wants for nothing. He’s 181cm, he’s super fast, he’s got great power. We’re pretty confident he’ll play well enough to hopefully get an opportunity in the Young Guns game and can press his claims there.”

STYLE OF PLAY

“We want to play like everyone wants to play. You want to take the game on, you want to respond to what the game gives you. We want to control the ball when we need to, we want to overlap and go with speed when the opportunity arises. We don’t get carried away with style of play or setups and structures, we put the focus primarily on the individual. Yes, they’ve got to fit into the team environment. We’ve got to play with a team-first attitude, but from our end it’s about improving these kids and hopefully improving them enough to have their name called out come [draft time].”

GOALS

“The overriding principle of our program is always the same, it’s to leave better. So, if leaving better means you improve enough to become a draftable footballer, fantastic. If it means you improve enough to become the number one draft pick in Australia, great. But at the same time, if it means you improve enough to become a very good Ovens & Murray League footballer, that’s fantastic… it’s just continual improvement.”

ROUND 1

vs. Gippsland Power
Sunday March 30, 1pm @ Highgate Recreation Reserve

“Gippy is always a huge challenge for us. They’re the one team we have most trouble with. They’re always really physical. They’re always really strong over the footy, so our boys are looking forward to it. It’s another opportunity to hopefully test ourselves against what is always a really strong competitive side. We haven’t had as much connection together as a full group so we might be a little bit clunky early, but that’s no excuse for not playing well.”

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