Cassidy Parish will make his first appearance for Winchelsea in nine years in Saturday night’s GDFNL clash with North Geelong after GFNL club Grovedale agreed to clear the gun midfielder.
The Geelong Falcons premiership player indicated to the Tigers pre-Christmas that he wanted to return to his junior club.
However, Tigers coach Jacob Spolding confirmed to K rock Football they will now release the 24-year-old to the Blues.
“Last (Tuesday) night, he met with our playing group and explained his reasons behind wanting to move back to Winch,” Spolding said.
“He goes with our best wishes, and he will play for Winchelsea this Saturday.
Winchelsea coach Brendan Forssman welcomed Parish’s return.
He played his lone senior game for the Blues as a 16-year-old in late 2015 before spending two years with the Falcons, two games at VFL level with Werribee, and 61 senior games at Grovedale.
“There is certainly a lot of history with the Parish name at Winchelsea, with (dad) Glen and the boys running around in the juniors, Forssman said.
“It’s great to have Fin back, and Cassidy coming back is awesome.
“Who knows, we might end up with all four boys back there at some stage.”
GDFNL: NO QUESTIONING DEVILS’ EFFORT
Parish, who averaged 24 disposals and 7.6 clearances in 14 games for Grovedale last year, will go straight into the Winchelsea midfield for the meeting with the Magpies.
“He’s trained a fair chunk with us,” Forssman said.
“Cass is really good. He’s got some footy smarts and great ideas about how we should play the game.
“The boys take it on board whenever he has something to say.”
Spolding says the door is open at Burdoo Reserve if Parish desires to play at GFNL level again.
“We would certainly welcome any player who has left our footy club back if they wish to do that in the future,” he said.
“That’s certainly relevant for Cas, absolutely.”
Parish is the second departure from Grovedale in the past week, with Luke Ford joining Bellarine club Queenscliff.
X: @krockfootball
