Apollo Bay football fans have reason to be excited with two former Hawks stars returning to the club this season.
Apollo Bay premiership players Peter Featherston and Cameron Tate headline the players Hawks officials hope will help the club climb the ladder after a disappointing 2008.
Reports from the Bay are that Featherston is flying high, a daunting proposition for the ruckmen that have to go head-to-head with the 31-year-old big man this season.
New Bay coach Sean Permezel said Featherston, a dual league best and fairest, had dropped weight and was not showing any sign of a once-troublesome knee injury.
“It’s just good to have him back because Mark, his brother, is on the committee, so it makes for more of a family-orientated club,” he said.
Tate will provide a strong target in attack having kicked 90-plus goals a season for the Hawks in the past.
Alvie has trumped Colac in a tug of war for star teenage footballer Ben Cox.
As late as last week the Tigers were confident of keeping Cox at the club this season.
But a last-minute bid from Colac district league club Alvie has pulled the rug out from under Colac’s feet in luring the talented goal-kicker to the Swans.
Cox, 19, signed with the Swans on Tuesday night, less than a week after Colac coach Tyson Hay told The Colac Herald he believed Cox would stay.
Hay said yesterday that Cox’s decision was a back-flip on the discussion he had with the youngster last week but he was not surprised to lose him.
“I thought last week when I spoke to him it was the end of it but it obviously wasn’t and obviously Alvie were pretty keen so I’m not surprised from that point of view,” he said.
Colac district midfielders can breathe a sigh of relief.
Lorne footballer Casey Tully might not be around to make life difficult in the centre of the ground this season, having earned a place in Geelong’s VFL team.
Geelong selectors have rewarded Tully, 22, with a place on the team’s supplementary list, giving the hard-working onballer an opportunity to play in Victoria’s top football competition.
Tully, runner-up in last year’s Colac district football best and fairest, is part of the team’s 10-player reserve list, which rotates four players into the team each week based on their performances.
His Geelong role will be similar to former team-mate Jack Hollmer, who played with Lorne when not required for the VFL team.
By Rachel Rodger • Mar 25th, 2009 • Category: Football, Sport
If first appearances were a guide, Alvie would seem a club set to slide this season.
The departures of a captain expected to lead the club into the future and two of the team’s main players are a tough break for any side at the start of a new season.
But ask new coach Luke McLennan his hopes for season 2009 and you get an encouraging view of where his club is.
The new leader, a long-time Swan’s servant, is not dwelling on the loss of former captain Josh Goonan, and brothers Andrew and Christian Kelly, instead putting his faith in a group he says has the manpower to go beyond last season’s preliminary final finish.
“I don’t believe in taking the club backwards,” McLennan said.
“Finals are an absolute minimum. To win a premiership you’ve got to finish top three, so that’s where we’ll be aiming,” he said.
By Rachel Rodger • Mar 27th, 2009 • Category: Football, Sport
Don’t expect new Apollo Bay coach Sean Permezel to talk his side up this season.
The new Hawks leader has learned from the mistakes of last year and banned talk of finals or anything that might put his players up on a pedestal.
The Hawks were Colac district football’s most-hyped team this time last season, having gained a group of quality recruits that would carry the side to a flag under coach Tyson Holt.
But the influx of players created disharmony among the group and the Bay’s year ended pear-shaped outside the top five.
Permezel has put the last year behind him and wants to start afresh after losing the players he says had a negative influence on the team.
He said talk of a premiership last year was counter-productive and had formed the basis of a new approach to the coming season.
“It had a massive effect, to be honest,” Permezel said.
“We were a little bit ahead of ourselves in thinking that way, so this year I’ve brought it back to no expectations, I haven’t even said where we should finish,” he said.
“It’s just about getting back to playing good footy without having to rely on the big-name players.
By Rachel Rodger • Mar 30th, 2009 • Category: Football, Sport
If there was betting on Colac district football matches, Birregurra would start the season with the shortest odds for the 2009 flag.
The Saints have added more firepower to an already bolstered recruit list this year and, on paper, seem capable of progressing further than last year’s semi-final berth.
Opposition club leaders have already started talking up the new-look Saints, predicting they will be the team to beat when the season starts on April 18.
The hype follows the club’s influx of Geelong-based players, with the Saint’s tapping into a connection with GFL teams St Marys and South Barwon.
Former St Marys midfielders Pat Nolan and Lachlan Hassle and former South Barwon tall Jack Moorfoot were the first to sign with the Saints but others have since jumped on board.
Former South Barwon players Stephen Salajan, a defender likely to take an important role in defence, utility Joel Iskra and ruckman Simon Payne have joined, while Drysdale’s Ryan Healy will add depth to a midfield that will be without former coach Dan O’Kelly, who will play with Beaufort in the Central Highlands league this season.
By Rachel Rodger • Apr 1st, 2009 • Category: Football, Sport
There were times last season when Colac Imperials looked like boys trying to match men.
It might sound harsh for the proud Colac club but that was the reality – the Cats simply lacked the firepower last year to trouble most of their Colac district football rivals.
In fairness, injuries struck down a few of the Cats’ prime movers and prevented the side winning more matches.
But the injuries only highlighted the club’s lack of depth and the ground it had to make up to challenge for finals.
The question on the lips of most Imps supporters ahead of a new season will be whether the 2009 Cats have the manpower to improve.
Cats coach Tim Hassett said he would wait until after round six to assess the club’s goals but took a different slant on club success.
The new Cats leader said he would not use ladder position as a measure of the team’s improvement in his first year at the helm, given where his side finished last year.
“Although people gauge success on winning, winning isn’t everything,” Hassett said.
By Rachel Rodger • Apr 3rd, 2009 • Category: Football, Sport
If there was a pre-season football ladder, Forrest would have to feel it was at the top right now.
Not because it possesses the strongest football list or most outstanding pre-season form, but because the Lions’ at last look like they have a future.
For the first time in years Forrest has an under-17 side, a breeding ground for future Lions players to help relieve the club’s reliance on players from Geelong.
The revolving list of Geelong players into and out of the Lions’ camp has been a problem in recent years and the trend has continued this season, with half a dozen Geelong-based players departing.
But Forrest team manager Bob Brooks said despite the departures, his club was in one of its strongest positions, with juniors now waiting in the wings to step up.
Brooks said juniors would become the future of the club, with teenagers Ben Rhodes and Matthew Taylor already showing enough promise to get their chance this year.
Reigning premier Irrewarra-Beeac has a point to prove.
Typically, a football side that asserts itself as the competition benchmark the previous year can afford to ease into a new season with the front-runner’s tag.
But the Bombers are different.
Coach Dan Casey said his side was prepared to make a new statement and raise the bar another level after sensing doubts about whether the team could recapture its 2008 form.
The Bombers have lost a handful of players that played a big part in last year’s flag and a question mark hangs over whether the side can maintain its dominance.
Casey said the tall poppy syndrome made his side a target but he was happy to be the hunted, and hear the whispers his team would lose its edge.
He said the talk only strengthened his players’ determination.
“It does annoy you and with last year, you would have thought clubs would be happy to have the premiership stay in Colac area and not down on the coast.
“But it doesn’t worry us, they might want us to slide down but I don’t think the boys will let that happen.”
I beleive that the Bombers will still be a force this season, interesting to see that Boom's end of season review is pinned up on the change room wall as motivation!
Lorne Football Club must have something going for it.
Whether it’s the sand, the surf or the sea air that draws the crowd, the football team never fails to attract its share of quality players when a season rolls around.
Add former Lorne stars Sam Parsons, Ricky White and Brock Shiels to the mix and there is enough firepower to make rival teams nervous of last year’s grand finalists.
But there is more bad news for Colac district clubs, with talented Anglesea duo Ryan Evans and Andrew Little and former Noosa wingman Nathan Winter also joining the Dolphins.
No other club in the competition has injected such talent and it’s no wonder Dolphins co-coach Lee Hollmer is excited about the season ahead.
Hollmer said his side had patched up the missing links from the side that fell 10 goals short of Irrewarra-Beeac in the 2008 grand final.
Otway Districts coach Tim Pekin is never one to get carried away with what confronts him – good or bad.
The reserved but respected Demons leader would prefer to put his head down and get the job done with the young group at his disposal.
Pekin and the Demons would have loved another tall or two to ease the burden across the ground this season, hence their pursuit of talented Central Highlands ruckman Aaron Brackerman.
The Brackerman deal fell through, with Ballarat Football Club offering a reward for the big man the Demons could not match.
But Pekin, a veteran of 185 games with Fitzroy and St Kilda, remains upbeat about the challenge ahead in his third year at the helm, seeing the misfortune as an opportunity for others to step up.
It’s hard to believe that one of Colac district football’s most prominent clubs has spent the past five years in the finals wilderness.
The Roos have not tasted finals football since an elimination final defeat against Colac Imperials in 2003, a damning statistic for the proud Colac club and one new coach Chris McGuane is keen to turnaround.
McGuane has high expectations for his group, which finished middle of the road last year in a season basically spent rebuilding.
The second-year coach said the Roos might not be among the big four clubs he expected to fill the top of the ladder but he has his sights on fifth place despite a tough draw.
“It’s an achievable goal,” McGuane said.
“As long as we continue the improvement shown last year, finals are a realistic aim,” he said.
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