Ash-Wilson Trophy | Big out for GVL ahead of Saturday’s clash

By Tyler Maher

May 16, 2023

Late out: GVL will be without a key player this weekend. Photo by Aydin Payne

The battle for interleague supremacy heats up this weekend between Goulburn Valley League and Ovens and Murray League.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

But GVL will have to attempt to wrestle the Ash-Wilson Trophy back from its fierce rival without a key cog.

Benalla’s Josh Marchbank, who has racked up 288 hit-outs ― and 84 to advantage ― in the first six rounds of the season will not play in Albury on Saturday despite being named in the squad.

“It’s great for Josh to get recognised, I think he’s clearly the best ruckman in the competition and I think most teams and coaches would agree with that,” Saints co-coach Will Martiniello said.

“With the hit-outs he’s getting it’s quite amazing what he’s doing for us.

“(But) he won’t be playing, he needs the week off with a sore back.

“He probably shouldn’t have played on the weekend, but that’s who Josh Marchbank is – he fought through pain and made the trip down to Echuca for us and did a really good job.”

Euroa’s Andrew Smith and Kyabram’s Zac Norris are the other two rucks named in the GVL’s squad.

Smith averages eight hit-outs to advantage a game this season among almost 29 a match, while Norris averages just short of 21 hit-outs a game, with more than five of those to advantage.

Norris’ best work comes mostly at ground level though, second in the GVL for clearances a game (10.4) and first for gathers (9.6).

– Statistics thanks to GVL Data.