LOWER PLENTY coach Vin Dattoli says his side is aiming to play Division 1 finals for the first time in its history in 2015.
The Bears have enjoyed a fruitful off-season, signing star midfielder Heath Ayres from Deer Park, along with reigning Northcote Park best and fairest winner Doug Morris, South Mildura ruckman Justin Raiti and West Preston-Lakeside premiership player Debri Kutrolli.
The recruiting drive followed a successful 2014 season in which the club won nine matches – more than its combined tally over the previous two years – to miss the finals by just one game and percentage.
Speaking to NFL.org.au, Dattoli said his side now had the belief to take the next step into the Division 1 top five.
“We’re really trying to set ourselves on making finals this year and if we can achieve that we’ll obviously be ecstatic,” Dattoli said.
“Without taking anything for granted because everyone is fully aware of how tight the competition is, but we were ecstatic last year with our progression.
“If a few things had have went our way with a couple of key players available at the back end of the season, we might have scrapped our way into finals and from there you just never know.
“It’s always a battle trying to get between (players’) ears and build that inner-belief so last year’s progression was huge.
“You can already see through pre-season the belief and the way we’re going about our work rate and our training habits have improved again from last year.
“We’re rapt with the pathway we’re on at the moment.”
Dattoli said Lower Plenty had put a lot of work into strengthening its midfield over the summer.
With Ayres (pictured below) and Morris set to line-up alongside reigning Frank Rosbrook Trophy winner Matthew Vasilevski, Matt Duckworth, Chas Bromley and Will Morley – the Bears have gone some way to assembling one of the best on-ball divisions in the competition.
“To increase our rotations through the midfield is phenomenal… teams can’t go out and tag five individuals,” Dattoli said.
“The difference again to win one or two more games and finish in the top five is that you have to keep looking for continual improvement.
“So we have to keep looking at personnel and obviously we’ve got a few new recruits that have come in to the mix and are going to help out and could be the difference in winning one or two more games, or breaking even possibly because you just never know from that perspective.”
Dattoli said Lower Plenty’s playing group was in good shape one month out from the season proper, following an innovative pre-Christmas training regime.
Each player was provided an individual training program at the conclusion of the 2014 home and way season, with the program to be completed by the player away from the club.
Only four team sessions were conducted before the Christmas period, which focused on ball skills and planning for the season ahead.
“We put a lot of ownership and responsibility back on the individuals,” Dattoli said.
“As everyone knows, life today is extremely busy from a uni student to a full time worker.
“To balance the boys up with individual programs pre-Christmas has been extremely beneficial because the guys just look fresh at training at the moment.
“If they followed (the program) to the letter then great, it will benefit them this year. If they didn’t, well then it won’t benefit them so much.
“Now we’ve hit the ground running. Every session has been tough and we’re looking forward to Round 1.”
Lower Plenty is booked in for practice matches against East Ringwood, Seymour then North Ringwood in the coming weeks.
The matches will lead the club into a tough opening fortnight of the 2015 home and away season against powerhouse sides Montmorency and Heidelberg.
Dattoli said his playing group was looking forward to the challenging opening rounds.
“I think it’s absolutely fantastic,” he said.
“We’ve got two massive challenges but, having said that, there is not one player at the club who would lack belief that we can win both those games, which is huge.
“Twenty-four months ago it might have been different, but right now we beat Mont last year and we beat Heidelberg last year so we’re not going to go in feeling threatened by any stretch of the imagination.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence that we can probably win both of them with a little bit of luck.”
