A preview of the 2016 Meadows Greyhounds Division 1 season ahead of the remaining four games of Round 1.
Eltham and Greensborough kicked off the new season on Good Friday, with the Boro proving too strong in a 53-point win at Eltham Central Park.
After winning the premiership in 2014 and finishing runner-up last year, the Boro look well poised to again contend in 2016. New additions Nick Carnell and David Ellard add experience to an already top-class midfield, while Josh Griffiths and Chris Clark will be welcome additions back to the fold. Jack Johnston and Matthew Haynes also join full-time following stints in the VFL Development League.
Reigning premier Macleod has also strengthened its playing list as it looks to become the first team in seven years to win back-to-back Division 1 flags. The Roos have added 2015 Team of the Year half forward Ned McKeown from Bundoora, while Josh Totino joins from Coburg. John Andrew has retired, while second ruckman Michael Sayers will miss the season while overseas.
Despite its opening-round hiccup, Eltham has enjoyed an otherwise solid pre-season on the back of its most successful Division 1 season since 1977. Three-time club champion Gavan Connelly returns from overseas, while Eamon Gilbert will play with the Panthers full-time after a stint with the Northern Blues.
Northcote Park has had to manage injury concerns leading into its opening round match with Montmorency on Friday night. The Cougars will head into the 2016 season without Nick Carter, who suffered a knee injury during a practice match, while former North Heidelberg key forward Simon Andrews fractured his ankle and could miss a large part of the year. Damien Galofaro returns to steady the Cougars’ defence, while a number of VFL-listed players have made their way to Bill Lawry Oval.
Some familiar faces have returned to Bundoora for its 2016 campaign, with the Barbero brothers, Trent and Troy, heading back to Yulong Reserve, alongside David Mitchell, Matthew Ferraro and Glenn Grgic. After consecutive fifth-place finishes, the Bulls are hoping to this year win their first final since the dramatic 2013 grand final win.
Lower Plenty enters the 2016 campaign with a new coach, with Michael Ryan taking over the reins. Vin Dattoli remains at the club as Director of Coaching, with Jeff Gieschen joining as Club Development Manager. Former captain Billy Barden returns from injury this year, however the Bears have lost a host of key players from the 2015 season. Dual Frank Rosbrook Medal winner Matthew Vasilevski is among the names who could be headed from the Bear Cave, however his transfer to EDFL club Greenvale has been denied.
Heidelberg has enjoyed a fruitful recruiting campaign as it begins life under playing-coach Charles Gaylard. Star midfielders James Magner and Marcus Margliani will be joined by Dan Connors and Sam Gilmore in yellow and back, while a host of former premiership players, including Dale Nolan, return to Warringal Park.
West Preston-Lakeside has also landed some big names as it aims for a return to the finals for the first time since 2012, with Patrick Karnezis and Rhett Jordon coming on board. 23-year-old Karnezis joins from Collingwood after 25 AFL games, while former Norwood midfielder Jordon has represented Vic Metro the past two years and has formerly played with VFL outfit Coburg.
Ben Walton will play full-time with Montmorency this season, creating a powerful forward duo with Patrick Fitzgerald. The Magpies also welcome former SANFL star Brett Zorzi from Euroa, and will hope their promising younsters continue to develop as they get more senior experience.
Competition newcomer Whittlesea welcomes Roy Dyson back after a year at Glenrowan, while former Western Bulldogs and Brisbane Lions speedster Justin Sherman jumps on board as a playing assistant. The Eagles also regain defender Luke Deards, while Jai Robinson will play with the club full-time. Reigning club champion Matt Dornauf could miss parts of the season after being added to Essendon’s VFL squad.
Continue below to see your club’s player movements ahead of this weekend’s opening round of action.
BUNDOORA
Coach: Phil Plunkett
Last year: 11 wins – 8 losses (fifth)
IN: Trent Barbero (Airport West), Troy Barbero (Airport West), Aaron D’Angelo (South Morang), Matthew Ferraro (Thomastown), Will Flanders (St Joseph’s), Adam Follachio (Thomastown), Jack Furlong (Hurstbridge), Glenn Grgic (Craigieburn), Tylar Joseph (Coffs Harbour), David Mitchell (Strathmore), Isaac Muller (Greenvale), Frank Multari (Thomastown), Dominic Nixon (Barooga), Timmy Totevski (Thomastown)
OUT: Blair Kelly (Geelong Amateurs), Ned McKeown (Macleod), Nick Sheldon (Kilmore)
Coach says: “We’ve proved to ourselves that we’re not going to be the bottom of the pecking order. We’ll have more expectations on ourselves and more expectations from other people. There’s a fair few that have played senior footy. The depth should be there, it will be good to have players having to fight for a position.”
ELTHAM
Coach: Mario Bandera
Last year: 13 wins – 8 losses (third)
IN: Mikael Avramov (Toronto Eagles), Chris Brannan (Port Melbourne Colts), Gavan Connelly (returned), James El Moussalli (Hawthorn AFC), Shannon Franklin (Doncaster East), Chris Honey (Diamond Creek), Lachlan Merkel (Toronto Eagles), Andrew Tashevski-Beckwith (Hawthorn AFC)
OUT: James Kroussoratis (Shepparton Swans), Stephen Witkowski (North Launceston)
Coach says: “People might well talk about us as a top-four side now, which gives us that motivation to work that extra bit harder. We’ve enjoyed having that bit of expectation (this pre-season). The group as it stands right now is the fittest of any senior group that I’ve been involved with. It was laid bare at the start of pre-season that it was going to be a gruelling campaign and to the boys’ credit, there has not been one complaint and everyone has responded really well.”
Round 1: Eltham 6.9 (45) def by Greensborough 13.20 (98)
GREENSBOROUGH
Coach: Ben Turner
Last year: 16 wins – 4 losses (runner-up)
IN: Nick Carnell (Coburg), David Ellard (Carlton)
OUT: Tim Atkins (Barooga), Liam Bowkett (West Coburg), Scott Conte (Panton Hill), Sam Parks (Panton Hill)
Coach says: “We need to improve, that’s the bottom line. We went into last season as the reigning premier and fell at the last hurdle. For us, it’s all about improvement and trying to right the wrongs. There are a number of clubs who have recruited well across the pre-season and the challenge for us is to remain in the top five and put ourselves in a strong position. We’re looking for continual improvement.”
Round 1: Greensborough 13.20 (98) def Eltham 6.9 (45)
HEIDELBERG
Coach: Charles Gaylard (new)
Last year: 7 wins – 11 losses (seventh)
IN: Daniel Connors (Bridgewater), Mark Favrin (Monbulk), Sam Gilmore (Port Melbourne), James Magner (Beaconsfield), Marcus Marigliani (Essendon VFL), Dale Nolan (Mornington), Thomas Sullivan (Merrigum), Adam Symes (Mornington), Jake Truefeldt (Leitchville-Gunbower)
OUT: Daniel Archer (overseas), Chris Cullinan (Shepparton Swans), Bailey Jordan (Banyule), Jason Kennedy (Deer Park), Michael Looby (overseas)
Coach says: “We’ve got a fair few new players but we understand that we lost a few players last year and we also finished seventh on the ladder. We’re coming from a fair way back but if we want to play finals we have some work cut out for us and recruiting is part of it. We’re like every other club I guess, in the fact that we’re aiming to play finals and if there happens to be some changes during the year then we’ll re-asses our goals from there.”
LOWER PLENTY
Coach: Michael Ryan (new)
Last year: 8 wins – 10 losses (sixth)
IN: Billy Barden (returned), Khan Rickard (Carlisle WA), Michael Ryan (Hurstbridge)
OUT: David Di Stefano (Templestowe), Matthew Duckworth (Panton Hill), Reece Geary (Macleod), Wilson King (Essendon Doutta Stars), Doug Morris (Old Trinity), Justin Raiti (Hawthorn AFC), Dillan Ronalds (St Mary’s)
Coach says: “The guys know what the standard is and to be competitive in first division you have to front up every week and give 100 percent effort otherwise you’ll end up missing the boat, as per what happened in 2015. I think the main emphasis will be our ball movement and the way we transition the football from defence to attack. We’ll also work to improve our decision making under pressure as it has to be a lot better than it has been in the past.”
MACLEOD
Coach: Garry Ramsay
Last year: 16 wins – 1 draw – 5 losses (premier)
IN: Lachlan Considine (Calivil), Reece Geary (Lower Plenty), Ned McKeown (Bundoora), Matthew Veszpremi (Pascoe Vale), Josh Totino (Coburg)
OUT: John Andrew (retired), Michael Sayers (overseas)
Coach says: “There has been no talk of going back-to-back, the talk has just been about improving and getting our preparation right and the rest will follow. We’ve identified that we have to improve and we’ve made some adjustments to the style of footy we play. We want to keep progressing and we’re definitely looking to do a fair few things different from what we did last year and challenge the group in that way. We do understand that if we do play the same way as last year it won’t be good enough.”
MONTMORENCY
Coach: Ben Haynes
Last year: 5 wins – 1 draw – 12 losses (ninth)
IN: Ben Walton (Northern Blues), Brett Zorzi (Euroa)
OUT: Rowan Hore (Montrose), Mark McKenzie (retired), Drew Schleibs (St Mary’s)
Key stat: Last year was the first time since 2007 that Montmorency didn’t appear in the Division 1 finals series. The last time the Magpies missed consecutive finals series was 15 years ago, when the club didn’t appear in the then top four between 1994–2001.
NORTHCOTE PARK
Coach: Harmit Singh
Last year: 11 wins – 9 losses (fourth)
IN: Simon Andrews (North Heidelberg), Daniel Chadwick (Thomastown), Ricky Fandrich (Greenvale), Damien Galofaro (returned), Nick Gray (Collingwood VFL), Marty Hoare (Collingwood VFL), Steven Hanning (Darwin), Thomas Jackson (Marong), Mannon Johnston (Morwell), Lachlan Little (Morwell), Brody Ricardi (Myrtleford), Josh Turner (Lower Plenty)
OUT: Matthew Adams (Airport West), Tarkyn Lockyer (Doncaster), Patrick O’Connell (overseas), Tom Walliss (Yarrawonga), Joel West (Airport West)
Coach says: “We need to score a few more points and be around the 100-point mark every game. We definitely want to work on our scoring efficiency and our ball movement and we also want to work better when we don’t have the ball in our front half, force some turnovers to get some scores.”
WEST PRESTON-LAKESIDE
Coach: Leigh Cole
Last year: 6 wins – 12 losses (eighth)
IN: Brayden France (Dookie), Rhett Jordon (Norwood), Patrick Karnezis (Collingwood), Alex Stoikos (Thomastown), Luke Vincitorio (Hadfield), Ryan Wait (Lexton), Nabil Yassine (Watsonia)
OUT: Andrew Dobby (Pyramid Hill), Kirk Lang (Elmore), Trent Lang (Elmore), Billy Micevski (Pyramid Hill), Glenn Robertson (Craigieburn), Michael Tilmouth-Turner (Doveton), Aaron Willitts (Epping)
Coach says: “His (Karnezis) form through the VFL has been pretty good so I imagine that would transfer to the Northern Football League. His first year on Collingwood’s list was a bit hampered by injury, but it was probably lack of opportunity last year. There’s a bit of flexibility there whether he plays midfield or forward. Rhett has played a fair bit of senior footy, he played VFL at Coburg when they were aligned with Richmond and (spent) the last three years at Norwood. He’s played in the Eastern footy league rep side and the Vic Metro side the last two years.”
WHITTLESEA
Coach: James Atkins (new)
Last year: 14 wins – 1 draw – 6 losses (Division 2 premier)
IN: Cameron Barrett (Balranald), Ryan Cumberland (Wallan), Luke Deards (returned), Roy Dyson (Glenrowan), Justin Sherman (Kyabram)
OUT: Cameron Conlon (West Coburg), Luke Crowley (Kilmore), Brett Hayes (Wallan)
Coach says: “Roy is a premiership captain at our club. Any premiership captain coming back to your club is going to be great for you. (Justin) has been fantastic, you can see that he’s a true leader. All the boys are excited to listen to what he has to say, he trains hard and you can tell he’s had a lot of experience. Being at AFL level, he still trains like he’s playing AFL which is fantastic. It shows our young blokes where they have to get to (to achieve) success.”
