A FIERCE Hampden league rivalry will provide an interesting subplot on AFL grand final day.
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Cobden and Camperdown supporters will be cheering for one of their own when Sydney tackles Western Bulldogs at the MCG.
Bombers talent Gary Rohan and Magpies export Easton Wood both returned to watch their junior clubs play throughout the 2016 season.
Cobden president Chris Walsh said Rohan, now in his seventh season at the Swans, was grateful for the role the Bombers played in his career.
“Gary is always giving his time to Cobden Football Netball Club when he’s back and has a lot of support in Cobden,” he said.
“He comes to Auskick when he gets a chance to come home. Nothing is out of the question.”
Walsh said the Bombers held their collective breath when the injury-prone speedster was stretchered off with what appeared to a be serious knee injury during Sydney’s semi-final win over Adelaide.
The 78-game utility made a remarkable recovery to play a starring role in the Swans’ preliminary final win over Geelong a week later.
“We were up at the social rooms at the time after the (Hampden league) preliminary final day and the room went silent when Gary went down,” Walsh said.
“We all felt for him – we didn’t know the outcome at that stage.”
Camperdown stalwart Peter Conheady said the Pies were proud of Wood, who started his career in black and white before moving to Geelong on a cricket scholarship as a teenager.
Wood, in the absence of injured skipper Bob Murphy, will become just the third player to captain the success-starved Bulldogs in a grand final.
“We had a big crowd at Camperdown on Saturday night after the netball grand final, as you could imagine, and we held off our awards because everyone was engrossed,” Conheady said of the Dogs’ six-point preliminary final win over Greater Western Sydney.
“It’s amazing to think a young lad from your junior football program has the potential to hold up the premiership cup.”
Peter ‘Chester’ Reilly coached Wood at under 16 level – when the now-high-flying rebounding defender played as a midfielder.
“I am very proud of the lad. I had him for two years and he was a good little player,” he said.
“He always had a big ticker – he could run and run all day.
“His father (Phil) was a Commonwealth Games high jumper and his mother Fiona, who lived a couple of doors down, I used to train with her as she was a really good 100-metre runner.”