Senior players Chris Horman, Roy Dyson, Brent Toll, Janan Daniel, Brenton Briffa, Lucas Hobbs and Luke Deards have all put pen to paper in the past fortnight.
The players make up an integral part to the team’s midfield while Horman and Deards have become the club’s premier defenders this season in the absence Mathew Quinton through injury.
The other three signings are Nathan Andrews, Nathan Stefanile and Riley Dyson. All are under-19s players who have played a majority of their games in the seniors in 2012 and will look to push into the senior side permanently next year.
Roy Dyson, 25, who has played with the senior side since he was 16 and has collected the senior best and fairest award three times is excited about where the direction the club is taking.
“It is a great family oriented club and we have a great young group who have plenty of natural improvement in them,” he said.
“Being led by a coach as dedicated as Pete (Bugden) should see us up and around the mark in 2013, provided we can keep the list together.”
Whittlesea has also confirmed that Jarrad Carey has been appointed as the club’s football manager effective immediately.
Carey, 31, brings a wealth of experience and an extensive network of contacts to the club after seven years working at Collingwood and more than three years as the NFL’s football operations manager.
His appointment holds the Eagles in good stead as they aim to go on a recruiting drive on a much bigger scale than in previous years.
This includes the Eagles actively looking for a dedicated reserves coach for the 2013 season, with current reserves coach Brad Dean set to take up a senior assistant role with the club next year.
Carey was thrilled to have been selected for the position.
“I’ve taken on the footy manager role to ensure that the club keeps moving forward and to reward the loyalty and dedication of the quality people around the club,” he said.
“Our aim is to recruit some high quality players capable of competing at the highest level of NFL, while nurturing the enormous young talent we already have, and we aim to play Division 1 finals in 2013.”
Nathan Croughan has also been appointed as operations manager and as a business owner and dedicated football man should bring a bevy of business experience with him.
