After a 2012 season dominated by the top three teams – Mernda, Panton Hill and Reservoir – the upcoming year looks a lot more competitive for the third division.
Last year’s bottom three sides all have new coaches and all have been active in the clearance period. Watsonia, in particular, will look a brand new side with more than a dozen new players joining the club with 20-year-old playing coach Lochy Dornauf now at the helm.
Thomastown joins Division 3 for the first time and the relegated Bears have turned to under-19s premiership coach Steve Krstevski to change their fortunes around.
Grand finalist Panton Hill and preliminary finalist Reservoir both look to have strengthened their lists, while fourth-placed St Mary’s will hope to add to its wins tally as its young list begins to develop more experience.
Below are all the list changes for each Division 3 club, along with thoughts from the coach of each club.
HEIDELBERG WEST
Coach: Derek Shaw (new)
Last year: 3 wins – 13 losses (sixth)
IN: Harley Boland (Macleod), Nubbi Bux (Fitzroy Stars), Sheldon Evans (Watsonia), Kyl Ewart (Macleod), Blake Gunningham (Macleod), Jack Marris (Macleod), Craig Toohey (Macleod)
OUT: Dean Papadopoulos (Lalor)
Coach says: “(The new players) have settled in well. It’s not that I wanted to take anyone off Macleod because my son (Kane) is there. We’ve got some blokes in who were probably lingering in the reserves except for Kyl. They’ve come down mainly because of Kyl and not myself and probably thought there is an opportunity here to play senior footy.”
PANTON HILL
Coach: Dean Haydock
Last year: 16 wins – 3 losses (runners-up)
IN: Jarrod Cahir (Banyule), Brad Colliver (Wallan), Tim Duckworth (Lower Plenty), Jeremy Gercovich (Lower Plenty), Ben Finnin (Montmorency), Nathan Hendry (Lower Plenty), Ben Hibberd (Lower Plenty), Anthony Kidd (Eltham), Christian Lendaro (Lower Plenty), Nick Lowther (Portarlington), Jayden Neilson (Greensborough), Jarrod McGough (Montmorency), Robert Parkinson (Banyule), Matthew Tantsis-Hall (Marcellin OC), Lloyd Toffolon (Heidelberg)
OUT: Brett Thorn (retired), Abe Williams (retired)
Coach says: “We identified a few weaknesses and one of those was our speed around the ground. We’re not as quick as we used to be so we targeted a few younger players such as Nathan Hendry and Tim Duckworth and a few others who can add a bit of leg speed to us. Obviously we’ve tried to pick up a bit of experience in Lloyd (Toffolon) and Nick Lowther from Heidelberg and (Jarrod) McGough and ‘Fino’ (Ben Finnin) from Montmorency so we’re trying to get a good mix.”
PARKSIDE
Coach: George Lattouf (new)
Last year: 6 wins – 10 losses (fifth)
IN: Luke Bates (Reservoir), Brendan Bennett (Kinglake), Aaron Eastlake (Reservoir), Luke Faraci (Prahan Assumption), Billy Hogan (Ivanhoe JFC), Ben McCrohan (North Heidelberg), Shane Potter (Fitzroy Stars), Khodr Taleb (Hadfield), Daniel Tatarskyj (Reservoir), Michael Thompson (Thomastown), Jordan Venables (Thomastown), Chris Smith (Northcote Park), Matthew Weebeerg (Fitzroy Stars)
OUT: Robert Briggs (Northern Saints)
Coach says: “(Our) expectation is to regroup again. We’ve been active in recruitment to get ourselves back into finals contention so we’re looking at that, that’s our aim. At the end of the day, to build a very strong senior squad is what we’re looking at.”
RESERVOIR
Coach: Ross Terranova
Last year: 13 wins – 5 losses (third)
IN: Ismail Ali (Pascoe Vale), Joel Buckley (Watsonia), Steven Hiho (Northcote Park), Dallas King (Yinnar), Adam Meroli (Pascoe Vale), Andrew Wallace (Pascoe Vale)
OUT: Luke Bates (Parkside), Mark Buckley (Templestowe), Aaron Eastlake (Parkside), Ross Murray (Swan Districts), Frank Tomaras (St Mary’s)
Coach says: “Last year we probably lacked rotation strength through the midfield. I really wanted to target only four or five blokes. Dallas King sort of came to us after last year. Adam Meroli was always on the move from Pascoe Vale so we needed to find a mobile centre half back and then we really focused on getting Joel Buckley because throughout the whole year I just thought he was superb. He was strong at the ball and he will give us help in the midfield to assist (Jarrod) Skinner and Luke Allen in the centre in the hard contest.”
ST MARY’S
Coach: Brenton Kinnear
Last year: 6 wins – 11 losses (fourth)
IN: Daniel Bedurke (Eltham), Troy Bickerton (Pyramid Hill), Jarrod Conduit (La Trobe), Jamie Smith (Old Paradians), Frank Tomaras (Reservoir), Paul Wickham (Eltham)
OUT: Daniel Sedgwick (Roxburgh Park), Timothy Sedgwick (Roxburgh Park)
Coach says: “We’ve changed a lot of things over the pre-season to get the boys a lot stronger and a lot bigger. We’ve also introduced about 25 under-17 kids from the junior club last year who have come on to the senior list. We have a new slogan ‘Big, Bolder, Better’, we want to get bigger in the body and do things a bit differently and get better as a club.”
THOMASTOWN
Coach: Steve Krstevski (new)
Last year: 3 wins – 15 losses (relegated from Division 2)
IN: Sean Abela (Kilmore), David Folino (Eltham), Tristain Harrower (Glenroy), Taaran Hillman (Lyndale), Glenn Holmes (Lalor)
OUT: Raafat Rachrache (Hadfield), Michael Thompson (Parkside)
Coach says: “I sort of see going down to Division 3 as an opportunity for the club to rebuild and establish itself back in the Northern Football League by winning games and not being that side who was pushed over and beaten pretty comfortably. Last year we had three or four losses by 100 points and that will just bring the mood down around the whole club. Hopefully we can now get back people who have supported us in the past.”
WATSONIA
Coach: Lochy Dornauf (new)
Last year: 1 win – 15 losses (seventh)
IN: Daley Bear (Heathcote), Andrew Clarke (South Morang), Brendan Cottier (Lalor), Lochy Dornauf (Heathcote), Daniel Edwards (Fitzroy), Fraser Elliott (Woori Yallock), Damian Hanan (Lower Plenty), Clint Hewish (Yarra Glen), Chris Hodgson (Diamond Creek), Shane Hodgson (Wakool), Tony Hogg (Bundoora) Thomas Kerlin (Heathcote), Lachlan Reynolds (Tarrawingee), Brody Ricardi (Myrtleford), Stephen Rose (Manningham Cobras), Jason Shivo (Old Trinity), Thomas Walliss (Macedon)
OUT: Mark Bennett (La Trobe University), Joel Buckley (Reservoir), Sheldon Evans (Heidelberg West), Asheet Tak (Old Paradians)
Coach says: “I don’t really like to put any directives or expectations on where I think we’ll finish this year or whether there’s going to be success or not. I don’t really like to say that we’ll win a premiership or that we’ll make finals, I think we will assess all that a couple of games into the season but what I do know is that it is a brand new group and I am confident that we’ll be improved and be a bit of a force in this league hopefully.”
