A preview of each club ahead of the 2017 A Plus Labour Solutions Division 2 season.
Eight teams will compete this season, with Lower Plenty returning from five years in the top flight, while Watsonia has been promoted after last year winning the Heidelberg Golf Club Division 3 flag.
There have been plenty of high-profile recruits join the competition, headlined by AFL games record-holder Brent Harvey joining North Heidelberg.
Other big names to join the competition this year include Matthew Vasilevski (Thomastown), Josh Marchbank (Diamond Creek) and Dale Nolan (Lower Plenty)
The opening round matches are:
Lalor v Thomastown
Lower Plenty v Fitzroy Stars
North Heidelberg v Diamond Creek
Watsonia v Panton Hill
Continue below to see all the key ins and outs from each A Plus Labour Solutions Division 2 team over the off-season.
DIAMOND CREEK
Coach: Craig Hayes
Last year: 11 wins –7 losses (3rd)
IN: Josh Alam (Bonnie Doon), Jess Cosaitis (Bonnie Doon), Ned Harper (Eltham Collegians), Josh Lorey (Eltham), Billy Marshall (Montmorency), Josh Marchbank (Benalla), Kyan Watson (Montmorency)
OUT: Simon Buchanan (retired)
Coach says: “We look forward to improving upon last year and learning some lessons out of that (preliminary final) loss. In the prelim loss, we had 14 blokes under 22. It was a really tremendous effort from the playing group as a whole.”
FITZROY STARS
Coach: Jason Mifsud
Last year: 10 wins – 7 losses (4th)
IN: Josh Calyun (Rumbalara) Clinton Edwards (Shepparton United), Thomas Higgins (Rumbalara), Jye Karpany (North Pines), Hedley Smith (Nollamara), Nathan Walsh (Heidelberg West), Josh Wanganeen (Rumbalara)
OUT: Koolyn Briggs (Essendon Doutta Stars), Brodie Cook (Rumbalara), Daniel Francis (Hurstbridge), Joseph Kelly (Lake Boga)
Coach says: “Ultimately, we are playing for premierships, we’ve prepared to be a premiership team, were planning to be a premiership team and we need to compete to be a premiership team.”
LALOR
Coach: Jarrod King (new)
Last year: 3 wins – 13 losses (7th)
IN: Mitch Henwood (Epping), Spike Ingley (Elmore), Jason Kelly (South Morang), Harley Nancarrow (Epping)
OUT: Scott Dowell (Bundoora), Todd Hughes (Bundoora), Darragh McGovern (Sunbury Kangaroos), Niall McGovern (Sunbury), Blake Seeley (Bundoora)
Coach says: “With what we had recruited, we recruited a pretty good forward line anyway. We got ourselves a good centre half forward (Ingley) and we got ourselves a six foot five full forward (Nancarrow).”
LOWER PLENTY
Coach: Michael Ryan
Last year: 2 wins – 16 losses (relegated from Division 1)
IN: James Course (Panton Hill), Fabian Dorbolo (Southern Mallee), Matt Duckworth (Panton Hill), Tim Duckworth (Panton Hill), Ben Gill (Eltham Collegians), Mark Favrin (Heidelberg), Dale Nolan (Heidelberg)
OUT: Billy Barden (Quambatook), Blake Poyser (Bundoora), Julian Soccio (Blackburn)
Coach says: “That was one of my mottos when we went back to second division – to get past players back to the club. We’re really lucky to get all those guys back on board and they’ve slipped in pretty comfortably. Getting Fabian Dorbolo and Mark Favrin and Dale Nolan from Heidelberg has been good with their experience. It’s something we’ve really lacked.”
NORTH HEIDELBERG
Coach: Stephen Saddington
Last year: 14 wins – 4 losses (runner-up)
IN: Jackson Bailey (Heathcote), Adam Braendler (Thevenard), Michael Celestin (South Morang), Shaun Chaseling (Foster), Mitch Dillon (Montmorency), Josh Doherty (Greensborough), Blair Harvey (Heidelberg), Brent Harvey (North Melbourne), Blake Holmes (Ellenbrook), Nicholas Matthews (Montmorency), Liam Nunan (Montmorency), Nicholas Shelley (Wodonga)
OUT: Ryan Docherty (Reservoir), Guneyt Ozusen (Epping)
Coach says: “Anything less than the ultimate is probably going to be a disappointing year from our behalf. (Brent Harvey) is not there to just muck around and come and have a kick. He knew how disappointed we were when we got beat (last year). I think the whole club is and hopefully he’s there to help us go that extra step.”
PANTON HILL
Coach: Joffa Byron
Last year: 3 wins – 13 losses (6th)
IN: Jack Aldersea (Foster), Cameron Jordan (Greensborough), Chris McCabe (Eltham), James Molinaro (Golden Square), Jayden Neilson (Kilsyth), Alek Tsardakis (Montmorency)
OUT: Anthony Bryce (St Mary’s), James Course (Lower Plenty), Matthew Duckworth (Lower Plenty), Tim Duckworth (Lower Plenty), Brandon Freeman (Eltham), Jesse Freeman (Eltham), Tyler Scarce (Old Xaverians)
Coach says: “We’re really confident and happy with where we sit and what we have recruited. They’re guys that may not be well known to everybody in the competition but we went out and tried to target guys that had played Division 1 footy that were on the cusp. They weren’t getting that senior footy every week so we went out and tried to do that.”
THOMASTOWN
Coach: Ben Chapman (new)
Last year: 5 wins – 11 losses (5th)
IN: Dylan Armstrong (Southeast Suns), Daniel Chadwick (Northcote Park), Ferras Merhi (Coburg Districts), Jordan Ngawati (Oak Park), Koe Ngawati (Sandhurst), Osama Saad (Coburg Districts), Matthew Vasilevski (Greenvale)
OUT: Anthony Calafiore (South Morang)
Coach says: “We want to try and create an environment that is a Division 1 standard. That might not be results necessarily that get us to Division 1 straight away. What we are aiming to achieve is an environment that when it does happen, we’re as well prepared as we can be. And that has to be in everything we do. We have got to be professional in our training habits, our rehabilitation and pre-game, those sorts of things.”
WATSONIA
Coach: Corey McCall
Last year: 16 wins – 5 losses (Division 3 premier)
IN: Ben Anderson (Lancefield), Scott Barnett (Greensborough), Anthony Cardamone (Mernda), Lewis Franz (Montmorency), Christian Janev (Epping), Luke Powell (Koondrook Barham), Allan Young (Heidelberg)
OUT: Andy Bennett (retired), Jordan Brown (Lockington Bamawm), Matt Buzinskas (Wantirna South), Xavier Kelly (Lockington Bamawm), Levi Moss (Calivil), Hayden Mitchell (Lockington Bamawm), Harry Walker (Lockington Bamawm)
Coach says: “It’s more of a future plan now with Watsonia, we have to consolidate in Division 2 and have the aim maybe of squeezing into fourth spot. We have to earn the respect of the competition again and back our game plan in.”
