Interleague has finally arrived and not only is it the start of the Ovens and Murray’s climb back up to the top of country footy’s rankings, it’s my first coaching gig.

I’ve enjoyed the role and have got a bit more understanding of the not so fun parts, too.

With players pulling out and being unavailable, it can make things difficult.

WATCH THIS SPACE!

Fev has shared his thoughts on the upcoming interleague clash with Border Mail reporter Jake Bourke. His VIDEO INTERVIEW will be released at midday. 

I now know how hard it must have been for Matty Pendergast as coach the past couple of years.

But as we all know, you can only play the 22 blokes that want to be there and I’m really happy with the guys we’ve got on our team.

Myself, Kenny Stevenson, Kerry Bahr and Craig Ednie think we have come up with a good mix of speed, size and experience.

I can’t wait for the league’s young guys like Lonnie Hampton, Jarrah Maksymow, Steven Jolliffe and Jack Di Mizio to show their stuff.

After watching these guys at training, I now know how skilful they will be and I’m tipping a few party tricks might come out of the kitbag come 2.45 tomorrow.

Our midfield is full of class, with a couple of Morris medallists leading the charge.

Albury guns Joel Mackie, Brayden O’Hara and Dean Polo will join forces with a few of my mates from Yarrawonga and I can’t wait to watch them in action.

Tyler Bonat, Tim Cooper and Craig and Symes, back from the VFL, should provide us with first class options.

I’m really confident they can all get the job done.

Our backline is as solid as it gets, which is what every coach loves to have.

Led by Tyson Hartwig, Daniel Maher and Did Simpson medallist Drew Barnes, we have plenty of leadership and coaching experience.

Then there’s the forwards.

I can’t wait to line up alongside big Adzy Prior and Dean Limbach in the forward 50.

They’re both having great seasons and hopefully the midfield can deliver us enough footy so we can all feast on some snags.

I feel like we’ve built a team and we all can’t wait to pull on the black and gold.

Hopefully every club and their supporters can get around the boys and raise some money for James McQuillan.

JACK RIEWOLDT SLAMMED JUST FOR TELLING THE TRUTH

NO wonder players don’t want to say anything any more.

I had to feel for Jack Riewoldt this week after he got hammered for talking about Richmond’s gameplan in a press conference in Melbourne.

All he did was tell the truth and got slammed for it and almost got dropped as a result.

What a joke!

He didn’t bag anyone and was just speaking his mind about how things are going.

Isn’t that what we want from our players?

There’s no point saying everything is hunky dory when it’s not.

Richmond is going terribly.

And the fans want some answers.

He was just trying to explain what was going on and how the club was trying to fix it.

I was glad to see Leigh Matthews come out and say Damien Hardwick had made a mistake by having a go at Jack publicly — he’s a gun forward who is out of form.

The poor bloke was jumping fences yesterday to get away from the press.

The media arc up when players don’t say anything, yet jump all over them when they do.

It really annoys me.