IT WAS the moment Kangaroos’ List Manager Tim Harrington had been dreading. In the first ever match between the Kangaroos’ new dual VFL alignment clubs, North Ballarat's Brent LeCras had just cleaned up Tasmania's defender Scott McMahon in a crunching marking contest.

The fact that the two were Kangaroos teammates obviously had little impact on the severity of the otherwise fair collision, with a groggy McMahon being momentarily taken from the field.

Fast-forward a quarter and this time it was LeCras who found himself camped under a high ball. He knew it his turn to take a hit, and as fate would have it, there was only going to be one player within range of taking him out. Yep, Scott McMahon was bearing down on the vulnerable LeCras and looking for retribution.

"I can remember thinking to myself, 'Scotty, don't do it, don't do it', but he lined him up and ran right through him," Harrington laughs.

"But it was just footy and someone had the chance to line someone up within the rules and he did it. There's always going to be stuff like that and both Brent and Scotty understood that in the heat of the battle, you’ve just got to do what you have to do to help your team."

Despite the dangers of moments like the above, the Kangaroos' brains trust is delighted with how the dual-alignment deal has turned out. The driving force behind the arrangement is that the club wanted its players not representing the Kangaroos on any given weekend to be playing regular senior VFL football, and that has been achieved. With the Kangaroos' original VFL affiliate Port Melbourne, this was not always the case.

"Port put in place a system where a maximum of 12 Kangaroos listed players were getting a game, and with a good injury record, that meant it was rare that we didn't have a handful of blokes playing at VFL seconds level," Harrington says.

"Unfortunately the gap between VFL twos and ones is just too great. That meant some of our kids weren't getting good, competitive footy from week to week."

Harrington suggests that Hamish McIntosh was one player who suffered under the Port Melbourne arrangement. With David Hale (drafted a season prior to McIntosh) and Adrian Deluca filling the two ruck spots in the Port Melbourne seniors, McIntosh was left to dominate the lower, less competitive VFL reserves ranks. Great for his ego, not so good for his development.

"Even last year someone like Andrew Swallow has come on in a way he wouldn't have been able to do in the VFL twos," Harrington says. "It's likely he might have started in the seconds in a one-club deal so his chances of eventually getting a gig for the Kangaroos in his first year would have been restricted under the old deal."

"But having said that, sometimes we feel that having that option to play seconds at North Ballarat can be a good thing. For example, someone coming back from injury might find coming back via the VFL twos is beneficial. Tim Hutchison is a good example of that.

"Because we don't have the option of getting our players to play VFL seconds with Tasmania (Tasmania doesn't have a VFL reserves team), we have to be careful about which players we assign to each club. But ultimately we decide who is going to each club in consultation with the clubs."

Harrington says a large part of the success of the dual-alignment can be attributed to the professional approach taken by the North Ballarat and Tasmania officials. Both clubs were impressive in their initial dealings with the Roos.

"We ended up going with North Ballarat and Tassie because they were very professional and were keen from the day dot. They were keen to embrace us and we weren't chasing them to make it happen.

"I think the thing you worry about is how the agreement might be good in theory but not necessarily be as good in practice. I'm delighted to say that this hasn't been the case.

"The strength with both clubs is that our relationships have developed into very much a co-operative thing. We like to give input and feedback on where we'd like certain players to play, but when it comes down to it, a game of footy has to be won.

"So if a player has to come off or a change needs to be made that's going to help the team win that position on the day, that happens. We can't expect any more or less than that."

Another key factor in the success of the two-club deal is the work of the Kangaroos' development coaches, Neil Connell and John Lamont. They are aligned with a club each – Lamont with Tasmania and Connell with North Ballarat – and their brief involves attending all VFL games as a part of their respective club's coaching line-ups. They then report back to the Kangaroos' coaching staff with a rundown on how the players performed on the weekend.

"We did a lot of research and planning into this before we actually decided to link up with the two clubs. Having both Neil and John at their respective clubs is another thing that reflects how well the relationship with each club is," Harrington says.

"We went to them with the proposal to get our people involved on match day – and that also includes statisticians and everything that goes with being a more professional VFL outfit – and they were only too happy to embrace that.

"In the end, it's beneficial for North Ballarat and Tasmania, but also the Kangaroos, and that's obviously our priority."

Post script: North Ballarat 18.12 (120) defeated Tasmania 13.13 (91) in the clubs' first meeting for 2007 at the weekend. They meet again in round 16 at Aurora Stadium in Launceston.