We love you ’cause you’re Victorian: Why you might have a connection to this year’s grand finalists

Jarrod Berry and Willem Drew provided the muscle, then Hugh McCluggage added a splash of class.

Together, the future AFL stars were the starting midfield for academic powerhouse Ballarat Clarendon College, with Berry’s younger brother Tom and rookie-listed Magpie Flynn Appleby rounding out a comparatively awesome school football line-up.

All five went on to play at the highest level, and helped the Brad McGowan-coached college win back-to-back Herald Sun country shields in 2015-16.

McCluggage (South Warrnambool) and Berry (Horsham) will again be working towards a common goal on Saturday, as the Brisbane Lions teammates try to win their first AFL premiership, against Sydney, after going agonisingly close last year.

Saturday’s decider will be the first grand final not featuring a Victorian club since the 2006 clash between Sydney and West Coast, but many of the footballers playing this weekend are from the sport’s traditional home.

“It’s wonderful to be able to look back on it. Those were our most successful years,” McGowan told this masthead.

“Jarrod was always a bigger, stronger athlete, and he would walk around school, and you would know that kid is going to be an AFL player, whereas Hugh was a lighter build, but he was someone who just thinks faster than everyone else.”

There will be a distinct Ballarat flavour in Saturday’s grand final, with Kai Lohmann also certain to play for the Lions and fellow St Patrick’s College graduate Harry Sharp (East Point) among the preliminary final emergencies.

Veteran Swan Jake Lloyd (Horsham) hails from the region as well and, like the others, played for the Rebels in the elite under-18 competition. Lloyd is chasing an elusive AFL flag, too, after being on the wrong side of the 2014, 2016 and 2022 grand finals.

Victoria’s Grampians region might have split loyalties as a result, but Beaumaris Football Club should firmly be in the Swans’ corner, given Ollie Florent, Joel Amartey and Hayden McLean all played juniors there.

A fourth Sydney player, rookie Will Edwards, also played for Beaumaris before relocating to NSW as a child. Swans recruiter Kinnear Beatson first spotted Amartey while tracking Florent in a Mentone Grammar game.

Beaumaris club president Nick Heath, father of St Kilda’s Max, coached Florent in the under-14s and the Swan played alongside another of his sons, Callum, while a third of his boys, Ryan, was a teammate of McLean’s. Florent’s brother, Jai, still plays in the Beaumaris seniors.

“We’re quite proud of it,” Heath told this masthead.

“Hayden was always a very impressive junior footballer but had to make the AFL the hard way. It was a bit smoother for Ollie [who was a first-round pick], and he was an incredibly talented sportsperson. His father, of course, was [professional tennis player] Andrew Florent, who tragically died of cancer, which was really sad.

“Joel came along a bit later, and the Swans have done a great job developing them all.”

Lohmann remains best mates with his former Rebels coach David “Deeks” Loader’s son, Flynn, who played alongside the high-leaping Lion and current Hawk Sam Butler in juniors for Lake Wendouree.

In fact, Lohmann, or “Lohy”, as Loader refers to him, rang while this masthead was interviewing the long-time Rebels mentor, who also spent five years at North Melbourne.

“He’ll just be touching base, checking to see whether we were able to get tickets,” Loader said.

“That’s just how he is – he’s a beauty. He’s so infectious, happy, kind, and he just loves everybody. He’s a real credit to his mum, and his brother is exactly the same. They’re always thankful, and always thinking of others.

“A lot of people might see Kai play and perhaps not see that, and might think this kid’s arrogant, but he’s the most down-to-earth, real person you will ever meet.”

Lohmann shot Loader a text message with his commiserations after the Rebels’ grand final defeat to Sandringham on Saturday, ahead of Brisbane’s epic preliminary final showdown with Geelong the same night.

Loader, who appreciated the gesture, speaks just as highly about the rest of the Ballarat crew.

He calls McCluggage and Berry “super-talented juniors” but “great citizens above everything else”. He is family friends with the Sharps, and was thrilled to see Harry be drafted to the AFL while he was with the Kangaroos; he remembers how Lloyd “outworked everyone”.

Fremantle were the first of the interstate clubs to cotton on to the benefits of recruiting Victorian country kids, figuring out they would be less inclined to want to return to play for a Melbourne team than those from the big smoke.

Brisbane’s national recruiting manager Steve Conole saw the same opportunity, and was delighted to pair close friends McCluggage and Berry with first-round selections 14 picks apart in 2016.

They were two of the 10 country Victorians who Conole and co. chose in the previous four drafts, with a third Rebel – Cedric Cox – picked later in the same year.

“If there’s an opportunity to bring in some players who have had a prior relationship, then great,” Conole said in 2017.

“We were really happy to get Hugh and Jarrod together in last year’s draft, and it worked out really well – but probably where we rated them is where they fell. We certainly didn’t alter our draft board on the night, but if you can do it, it has a lot of positives.”

McCluggage almost ended up at the Giants, who selected Tim Taranto instead, after the GWS recruiting team quizzed McGowan on which of the pair would “help us beat the Bulldogs”.

Taranto’s superior contested work gave him the edge in their eyes, but McGowan, who was admittedly biased, insisted that McCluggage was the better option.

“One of my favourite memories is when I talked to Hugh about us needing more goals because I didn’t feel we were getting enough from our key forwards,” McGowan said.

“We were playing St Pat’s, and he went out and kicked three goals in the first quarter. They really tagged him tightly after that, but he’s just got that sort of ability.”

The Lions will hope for a similar return from McCluggage on Saturday, along with the rest of their Victorian country boys.

Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.