Kialla export and former Western Bulldog Alex Keath will call a club in the Southern Football Netball League home in 2025. Photo: AAP/Joel Carrett.
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JOEL CARRETT
When news broke of Alex Keath’s AFL retirement in October last year, Shepparton Football Netball Club fans surely held hopes of a return to where it all began.
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But instead of arriving to vamp up the Bears’ list, Keath instead chose to become a Vampire.
The dual talent confirmed his colours for 2025, electing to sign for East Brighton — nicknamed the Vampires — in the Southern Football Netball League.
Keath, a former Victorian first-class cricketer and 109 AFL gamer for Adelaide and Western Bulldogs, was lured to East Brighton by a former mentor from his teenage years.
Current Vampires coach Nick Jewell, who played 62 matches for the Victorian Bushrangers, played a role in Keath’s pursuit of cricket after he decided to move away from his initial AFL dream.
Now, the pair is set to rip and tear again — but this time, on the footy field.
“I coached him when he was (aged) 16, 17, 18 at school and then assisted him with his cricket when he made the decision not to pursue an AFL contract,” Jewell told Local Leader Footy.
“I sat in on a few of those meetings with him, he was a boarder and his parents lived hours away, I have known him for a long time and know he’s a great person.
“If that had something to get him over the line, that’s lovely, but you don’t help people for your own gain, you just do it because you could see he was a great kid.
“We’re nearly 20-odd years on, getting back into it together.”
Keath was typically deployed as a key defender during his stints at the Crows and Bulldogs, but the Vampires coach has other ideas for the 200cm colossus.
Jewell plans to throw his ex-AFL gem into East Brighton’s engine room where “he would be a huge-bodied midfielder” as the Vampires seek to build and replicate their most recent flag in 2023.
Keath will suit up alongside another former AFL defender — former Collingwood and Wangaratta Magpie Ben Reid — who has been named on East Brighton’s list to complement his new duties as a development coach at Western Bulldogs.
Meanwhile, a delisted Seymour product has found a home in Eastern Football Netball League.
Seymour’s Josh Schache has elected to join Doncaster East following his Melbourne delisting midway through last year. Photo: AAP/Joel Carrett.
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(AAP Image/Joel Carrett)
Josh Schache was axed by Melbourne in August 2024, ending the 27-year-old tall’s 76-game AFL career after being taken initially by Brisbane Lions at pick two in the 2015 AFL draft.
But this year, he will call himself a Lion once more.
Schache penned a move to Doncaster East following his delisting and will aim to help the Lions leap up the table following an eighth placed finish in 2024.
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