After looked poised for a top-five finish with a young squad last year, Heidelberg men’s football coach Danny Nolan says his club is aiming to play finals in 2022 with a bolstered list.
The Tigers won eight of 12 matches under Nolan in his first season at the helm last year and are aiming to be in contention when September rolls around this year.
“Heidelberg traditionally set pretty high expectations. I’m sure all sides are aiming to play finals and we’re certainly one of them,” Nolan told NFNL.org.au.
“I think the first thing is to get the group playing tight footy and then start the year, and we’ll start setting goals once we’re settled.”
Having fielded a relatively young side last year, Heidelberg has bolstered its squad for the 2022 campaign, which includes the addition of former Collingwood midfielder Brayden Sier.
Nolan said the powerful midfielder had made an immediate impression over the summer.
“We’ve been super impressed. (He’s) just been around the group the whole time, has an impact, has a voice, trains hard. Couldn’t be any happier with his influence around the group,” Nolan said.
“We’re not going to put too many expectations on him, just stick him in our midfield group and play his role.
“We’ve got a fair bit of depth in there. Hopefully it’s not all targeting Brayden and he can get off the leash a bit and enjoy his footy.”
The Tigers have also welcomed several other notable recruits over the summer.
They include Former Gold Coast Suns and Southport NEAFL defender Jaicob Kenny, Dylan Clarke from Wodonga Raiders and Kellan Smith, who joins brother and 2021 Coaches MVP winner Matt.
Nolan said he was impressed with how all three were tracking.
“Smith is a real hard nut in and under, sets the standard for the group and has been really good,” Nolan said.
“Dylan Clarke is training with Port Melbourne but rocks up to every session he can. Fantastic attitude, same as Smith, going to be a hard in and under player for us.
“Kenny is going to be a key back coming in from Queensland. Can play on talls but also as a run-off.”
Former Essendon ruckman Tom Bellchambers, who featured twice for the Tigers last year, will also be returning in 2022.
Nolan said the big man enjoyed his time with the Tigers and was keen to play around his coaching commitments with Essendon.
“Tommy had a ball when he played for us last year and decided to play for us full-time when he can,” Nolan said.
“We expect him to play hopefully every game.
“He wants to play as much footy as his body will allow. We’re rapt with him. He gives us a real focal point up forward and a real handy back-up ruckman.”
Coburg midfielder Luke Bunker has also nominated Heidelberg as his local club, having been aligned with Division 1 rival Montmorency in previous seasons.
But having been a consistent performer at VFL level for Coburg since debuting in 2017, Bunker is unlikely to feature heavily for Heidelberg.
“We’d love to have him, but we’ll just see where that fits in with Coburg’s schedule and how Luke goes,” Nolan said.
“His dad is a past premiership player so I think he’ll really love to play as much footy as he can with us.”
Heidelberg played its first practice match of the 2022 campaign last weekend, when it travelled to take on Anglesea.
Nolan says he was pleased with the early signs his side showed in the comfortable win.
“We played well. We had a lot of contributors and threw the players everywhere to test them out in a few positions,” he said.
“Josh Daniels and Josh Minogue were two guys who really impressed, Kai Kearns and Brody Tardio played really well, all the new guys did good things, which was really pleasing.”
Heidelberg is set to play Strathmore next Sunday, followed by a clash with Pascoe Vale as the club ramps up preparations for its Round 1 clash with Hurstbridge on April 2.
