WANGARATTA Rovers have continued their impressive push to return as a force in the Ovens and Murray this season by luring classy midfielder Sean O’Keeffe back to the W.J. Findlay Oval.
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O’Keeffe, who played six senior matches for AFL club Carlton, recently returned to the North East after two years working in the mines at Kalgoorlie and is likely to play in the Rovers’ round-1 clash against Myrtleford at the McNamara Reserve on Sunday.
The late signing caps off an impressive off-season by Wangaratta Rovers with coach Matt Allen ecstatic to have the former Hawk third-grade premiership player back in the brown and gold.
“Sean’s a quality person and quality player and continues our theme with getting former players back to the club,” Allen said last night.
“He’s trained only once with us, but looked very good on the track and, providing there are no hold-ups with his clearance and the shorter week, I would say he’ll be right for the weekend.
“We probably weren’t expecting him back already this year and it’s fantastic everything has fallen into place.”
O’Keeffe, 27, started his career with Wangaratta Rovers and played a handful of senior matches under coach John O’Donohue when free of commitments with the Murray Bushrangers.
He was then picked by Carlton with selection No.46 in the 2000 draft and had three seasons with the Blues before being delisted and joining VFL club Sandringham where he played in two flags.
O’Keeffe crossed to Sturt the following year for two seasons and later moved to Kalgoorlie to work in the mines as an electrician.
The onballer has spent the past two years with Railways in the Goldfields Football League and last season took out the Mitchell Medal as the competition’s premier player.
He finished equal fifth in the medal the previous year.
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