THOMASTOWN coach Dean Sinclair knows replacing experienced key-position players isn’t a cheap exercise.
The Bears have lost 2013 Northern Football League Division 3 Team of the Year defender Michael Manley to Berwick in a major blow to their 2014 finals chances.
Sinclair said Manley, a premiership player with Thomastown, would be difficult to replace.
“It’s not just that he’s a good player, but just his life experience on the ground is something we’ll miss a fair bit,” Sinclair said.
“They’re difficult areas to fill because the big fellas and the older guys with a bit of experience like that don’t come cheap either.
“We’re just relying on a huge few blokes to hopefully step it up a bit this year.”
He said Manley, a former Thomastown captain, had left with the club’s blessing having moved clubs to play closer to home.
“He’s left because he’s just got married and he’s just moved over to Berwick,” he said.
“There’s no other reason for that.
“Obviously with travel it would’ve been too much to come over to Thomastown two times a week for training then on a Saturday.”
Sinclair said he expected Steve Cadby and Julian Terzioski would fill the void left by Manley.
In another blow, highlyrated Josh Beare has joined Division 1 club West Preston-Lakeside after a pre-season training with Coburg VFL.
Sinclair said Beare had joined the Roosters to enhance his VFL prospects after being cut by the Lions in recent weeks.
“We were going to play him in midfield this year, but I think last year he played a little bit at centre half forward,” he said.
“He’s got some good size about him, he’s about six foot one and only a young fella.”
The former premiership coach admitted he was still getting to know most of the playing group after returning to the club following Steve Krstevski’s defection to rival Watsonia.
“Starting pretty late it’s pretty hard to get to know who the blokes are, their skills, their weaknesses,” he said.
This article is courtesy of Leader Newspaper.
