PACY midfielder Ben Cunnington looks set to become the next highly-rated graduate of the powerful Geelong Falcons.

The Falcons are the most successful club in the 18-year history of the TAC Cup competition, having produced Jimmy Bartel, Luke Hodge, Jonathan Brown, Scott Lucas and Gary Ablett.

Cunnington is away from the Falcons for the minute as he shows his wares for Victoria Country in the NAB AFL Under 18 competition. But he is still keeping tabs on his club teammates.

“It is pretty surreal,” Cunnington said. “I’ve been working hard and trying to improve my game all the time. Back at the Falcons they are still going strong. They had another win yesterday. It will be good to go back there and hopefully we can have a good finals series.

“At the start of the year I was hoping to have a good consistent year with the Falcons. I didn’t really think about the state team.”

Cunnington has captained the Vic Country team, which has produced a mix bag so far in the carnival.

“All the travel with the Vic Country boys, a few of the boys were a bit tired in the legs. To their credit, South Australia played really good footy and they were better than us on the day.

“We bounced back against Northern Territory and played some good team footy,” he said.

Cunnington said there was a real camaraderie among the Vic Country team despite players having to travel from all over the state to attend training.

“We started training over summer. We only get together once a month for training. Robert Hyde and all the coaching staff have done well to get us together as a group,” he said.

Victoria Country takes on the undefeated Western Australia this Wednesday and while Cunnington admits his team are underdogs, he is expecting a competitive effort.

“They’ve been playing pretty good football over the carnival. If we all play as a team we should give them a good run.”