Thomastown forward Anthony Capeci is open to spending more time in the midfield throughout the A Plus Labour Solutions Division 2 season.
The 22-year-old finished second on the goal kicking table with 36 majors last season and has led the Bears’ goal kicking in both his two seasons with the club since joining from South Morang.
Named in the forward pocket in the A Plus Labour Solutions Division 2 Team of the Year in both 2019 and 2018, Capeci is keen to experiment playing a role in the middle of the ground to further challenge himself.
“I’ve spent a lot of time as a forward in my career. It’s been a natural position in the last few years, but I am happy to open up and be put more up the ground,” Capeci told NFNL.org.au.
“I’d love to get up around the midfield, start running around there a bit more and see if I can have a bit of a different impact on the side.
“At the same time, I’m happy to play anywhere my team need me to play.
“We’ve got great forward depth and a great variety of forwards to choose from, including some our new guys, as well as the likes of Daniel Caruso, Shannon Ball and Kane Slater who’s back on the park this season.
“I feel like this year I won’t have to spend as much time there as I would have other years.”
It has been a summer of change at Main Street Reserve, with Thomastown appointing former Eltham and Epping coach Mario Bandera as senior coach.
The Bears have waved goodbye to several key players, including two-time Team of the Year ruckman Dylan Chapman, premiership forward Jacob Osei-Duro and utility Nick Horman.
However, in a major recruiting coup, the pre-season has been highlighted by the signing of Northern Blues midfielder Tim Totevski, Bundoora premiership forward Todd Hughes and North Heidelberg captain Daniel Bramich.
Totevski signed with the Bears after an injury-interrupted five years with the Northern Blues, where he kicked 28 goals in 38 VFL games.
Hughes will suit up for his third NFNL club, arriving at Main Street Reserve with over 300 senior goals to his name with both the Bulls and Lalor.
Meanwhile, Bramich will also bring much-needed experience to the Bears, after playing 208 matches with the Bulldogs and leading the club to the 2017 Division 2 premiership.
Capeci lauded the impact the experienced trio had already had on Main Street Reserve, saying it felt as if they had been at the club for years.
“Todd’s already had a massive impact at training. He’s experience really has helped our forward line, especially with it being such a young group of forwards,” he said.
“Daniel and Timmy have been just as beneficial for us for our defence and midfield. We have a lot of players in that 22-24-year-old bracket and having them in with their experience will really help us get to that next level.
“The three of them have brought different styles of leadership and different voices towards the side. The morale has been extremely positive, and they are fitting in seamlessly.
“We’ve gotten really tight over pre-season and we’ve worked extremely hard in our training and preparation for the season so the people we’ve lost haven’t impacted us as much, especially when you consider our new inclusions for the year.”
Thomastown will look to go further in its premiership quest in 2020 after falling short at the semi final stage in both of the past two seasons.
But Capeci feels that if pre-season is anything to go by, the Bears’ deserve to be in the mix to win silverware this year.
“I’m sure most sides feel the same way coming into the start of the year, but we definitely think we are up there with the best,” he said.
“We’ve been bundled out of finals in the first week in the last couple of seasons, so the mindset of the team is to push ourselves to go further into finals because we know we are capable of achieving more.
“We knew we were always there abouts, playing good football and pushing the good sides right to their limits so if every individual finds a little bit more improvement in themselves then we will be able to take the next step.”
