Lower Plenty head coach Ben Turner says the club is striving for an immediate return to the top flight.
Turner coached the Bears to the second division premiership in 2018, where the club enjoyed a famous grand final win over Eltham, courtesy of a Ben Paterson goal with the last kick of the day.
The Bears were competitive in their return to Meadows Greyhounds Division 1 in 2019 but managed only two wins to be relegated back to MC Labour Division 2.
Turner believes Lower Plenty has the playing group to return to first division in season 2022.
“We’ve got aspirations to be back in first division, we want to be back in there,” Turner told NFNL.org.au.
“We learnt a hell of a lot as a football club from our time in 2019 in first division.
“We’ve got guys in that age bracket that want to be able to experience Division 1 again, to do that we need be there at the end.
“We just have to do everything in our power to pull that off.”
Turner believes the brief taste the playing group had of playing in Division 1 will spur them on to reach great heights in 2021.
“We’ve had 18 months since we played in Division 1, so we’ve had a fair amount of time to soak it all in,” Turner said.
“The mood is centred around just playing football again. We’ve got a core group of guys that just want to play, the desire of the group is to get themselves back to first division.”
Turner is eager to see how the club’s youth can add value to the senior side this season.
“We have had a few of our younger group perform really well across pre-season. Lots of them are putting their hands up for senior selection, which has been a real positive,” Turner said.
“Tyler Wallace seems to have taken a step forward and enjoyed one of his best pre-seasons.
“Another is Andrew White. For similar reasons he has put his best foot forward during pre-season and given himself the best chance possible to play early days.”
Kieran Malone had signed to play with the club in 2020, but will not feature in 2021 after joining Rushworth in the Kyabram District Football Netball League.
However, there are plenty of fresh faces that Bears supporters should be excited about heading into the new season, with Turner listing Yarrawonga recruit James Elliott, former Northern Knights representative Jonathon Zapantis and Sam Paterson as players to watch.
“James Elliott’s pre-season so far has been really good. James is certainly a recruit that were excited to see play. We are really excited to see what he has to offer,” Turner said.
“Jon Zapantis has come to us throughout the early part of 2020 and is staying on in 2021. We’re definitely excited about the prospect of him pulling on the Bears jumper.
“Dynamic midfielder Sam Paterson is also returning from two knee reconstructions, so we are probably classifying him as a new recruit, given what we saw from him in 2017 before he went down with his first ACL.”
In a major boost for Lower Plenty, Darcy Barden will return to play full-time in season 2021 after missing most of 2019 due to work commitments. He will share the captaincy with Laurie Naismith.
The Bears will be looking to Tom Blake to fill the void left by former captain and star ruckman Patty Flynn, who has transferred to Macleod.
“Patty’s such a wonderful person and a person that Lower Plenty loves and has enjoyed watching over the last few years,” Turner said.
“Obviously, it’s not easy replacing someone of Patty’s experience and what he provides for us both on the field and off the field.
“Unfortunately for Paddy he had a long-term injury which ruled him out for most of 2019, which gave Tom Blake his opportunity to control the ruck from first ruck for much of 2019 and I think he did a terrific job.
“We are really excited to see what Tom is capable of in season 2021.”
Lower Plenty has faced Corowa Rutherglen and Maribyrnong Park in practice matches and will conclude preparations for Round 1 with an under-23s game against Montmorency on April 1, which will be played for the Paterson Shield.
Turner has been impressed with the pre-season performances so far.
“Two really good hitouts, they were terrific for us,” Turner said.
“The standout players was definitely Ben Paterson, who stood out in both hitouts. He looks like he is ready to take another step forward.”
