2014 EFL Pre-Season Wiki | Tomorrow: Surrey Park
by Victoria Halkias (@VictoriaMLH)
DIVISION 3 in 2013 was exciting. There were upsets, triumphs and heartaches.
Overall, it was possibly the most exciting competition in the league.
Wantirna South is one team that is all too familiar with the rollercoaster of emotions that Division 3 brought.
The Devils had a spectacular home and away season in 2013, winning 15 games to earn themselves second spot on the ladder. They then won through to a place in the Grand Final to go head-to-head with Doncaster.
But the Devils’ dream of becoming a Division 2 side was cut short, going down to the Sharks by 59 points.
However they won’t dwell on the disappointing end that the 2013 season brought.
With Round 1 now nine days away, the Devils are determined to light up Division 3 again, led by talented and humble coach Matt Clark.
They will enter the season with one simple goal: to keep improving.
“We haven’t really touched on last year’s Grand Final loss. We want to keep improving, to do that we’re going to have to work hard,” he said.
“The workload of the guys and the attitude has been fantastic.”
The Devils haven’t made any major changes to their game plan for the upcoming season. However they have added some height to their list.
Clark says his players will simply be focusing on honing the skills they have established over previous years.
“It’s a little hard to notice things that we’ve put together. We are working on being really well drilled at everything we do. We want to do it really well,” he said.
“We want to move the ball fast and we want to defend well when we don’t have it.
“We’ve been focusing on our kicking. We want to keep growing and improving.”
Clark is expecting Division 3 to be very similar to last year, which possibly puts his side at an advantage as it knows what will be required.
“I expect a really even competition again. Last year’s finalists are hard to look past. I think they’ve all got a pretty good list and will improve greatly,” he said.
“I know Heathmont and Chirnside Park have picked up a few and certainly Ringwood have picked up a lot.
“We’ll also be pushing for a finals spot.”
The club has been fortunate enough to retain most of their premiership players from last season, while also welcoming many new and beneficial faces.
“One thing we wanted to do was add height, so we’ve got Scott Houghton from Balwyn. We’ve given him an opportunity to grow as a ruckman. He’s lost weight and got really fit,” Clark said.
“We’ve got Tim Cook and David Lang from the Glen Waverly Hawks, they’ve been really impressive and are training really hard.”
Houghton, Cook and Lang are joined by Andrew Goland and Robert Papp (Nunawading), Tim Phillips (Casey Cardinia FL), John Rozakis (East Burwood), Ryan Baker, Jayden Cox, Ben Casey, Jayden Raab, Mark Denes, Jake Denes, Troy Tranter, Travis Clarke, Daniel Kouvardas and Morgan Persson-Clark (Scoresby), Brody Harbinson (EDFL.)
“Most of the player’s we’ve got have already been a friend of a player we’ve currently got, so there is a fair amount of closeness about them and they’ve fitted in really well,” Clark said.
Overall Clark is enthralled by how well his whole team has been performing over the pre-season. But for him, Taylor Leggate and Timothy Lee have been the standouts.
Clark has not been shy in hiding the fact he wants his boys to take part in another Grand Final.
“Firstly we want to play good consistent footy. We feel if we can improve, it should put us in a position to play finals,” he said.
“If we are lucky enough to make it there, we certainly want to play in the Grand Final with an opportunity to win it!”