By Wil Spence
The wait is finally over.
Today local football returns to the ovals of the Eastern suburbs, with confidence brimming that this season will see a sense of normalcy return, with finals set to return for the first time since 2019.
The reigning (co)Chandler Medalist Blake Pearson is as excited as anyone about the prospect of playing finals footy and is confident that he and his Norwood teammates will return to September action for the first time since their 2015 Grand Final loss to Balwyn.
‘’We firmly have our sights on a grand final and a premiership… our goal is to challenge the top teams,” Pearson said to efnl.org.au
Pearson highlighted the synergies in their reserves and senior teams, and the professional development and coordination they have embedded across the club.
‘’Our development squad plays the same way our seniors play, and this enables them to step in and play their role if required,
“We have said from day dot this is a development team and is there to improve and develop players and give them the best opportunity to step into senior football and play their role.”
Whilst Norwood’s contested game was sometimes questioned during season 2021, Pearson says a greater focus around the contest in the off-season will help quash those worries.
‘’Our focus has been on our competitiveness; a few more one-on-one drills has put us in a great position to challenge later in games’’.
Pearson himself is looking to add more midfield minutes to his own game, despite sharing the League’s top honour with Vermont skipper Lachlan Johns last season.
‘’Hopefully I’m still improving the work around the stoppages, I haven’t played a lot of midfields in the previous season,
“Certainly, my stoppage work is an area of my work that I can improve, and continuing to be damaging up forward, we’ve obviously bought Lochlan Dickson in, so there might be more time for me in other positions.”
Pearson also emphasised the importance of their younger players pushing for senior selection and holding all players accountable.
‘’Will Bromley, he’s a young kid, a little small forward who has got some speed and has impressed on the track and Hayden Kemp could also find a spot on the wing.”
Now is the time for Norwood to push their premiership case according to Pearson, with their squad starting to hit their straps.
‘’We know clubs like Vermont, Noble Park and Balwyn who’re always up there at the end of the season and will be difficult to beat, but we think we now have the team to win it.”
Mooroolbark’s Austin Smith also has dreams of winning a premiership at seasons end and is excited to get stuck into Round One after a long pre-season.
‘’Lots of the boys have been going for two-three runs a week and holding each other accountable with most boys in our Strava group app,” said Smith of he and his teammates hunger for the 2022 season.
“We’re going for finals, but we want to push for the double chance and then try go deep in finals,
“I believe we will be at the pointy end of the season come September.”
After winning the Kenneth Wright Medal in his first season in the EFNL, Smith refocused from his traditional weights training to an athletic based training program in response to the pressure associated with the greater profile in the league.
‘’I feel more pressure this year, compared to last season.
“A key focus on athletic based training such as plyometrics and game-based training I think will help improve my game.
“It’s made me want to work harder and hungrier.”
Fellow league medalist, Liam Kidd is very optimistic South Belgrave’s hopes of premiership success in Division Two after a promising debut year in the league’s third tier.
‘’The main goal is to win; we have all said that as a playing group,” said Kidd, who made it back-to-back league medals in 2021.
“We have added players of need and different coaches that we feel can help us play Division One type of football,
“We’re not aiming for Second or Third; we’re aiming to win it.”
With the addition of Taylor Garner from North Melbourne along with his brother Mitchell from Rowville and other notable ins, Kidd is encouraged with the standards being set for younger players at the club.
‘’One thing Luke (Galliot’s) hyped on over the off-season is the younger kids.
“We had [Blacky] Cayden Black play with us last year as a 17–18-year-old, but the likes of Nick Keely, Charlie Peter have a lot of leg speed, and we know teams like Ringwood and Heathmont spread really well and we think if we keep improving our running we can compete with these teams.”
Kidd described a pre-season that focused on a fitness focus to eliminate the bad quarter or two that cost the Saints in 2021.
‘’We felt like last year we underperformed, we had nice passages of play, but we couldn’t play four quarters of football.
“Over the pre-season fitness was our number one priority.
“We thought we didn’t hold ourselves accountable last year during the break.
The club have done well over the off-season hiring a strength and conditioning coach. We have been doing two sessions one week, and then three the next.”
The complexities of COVID-19 created unpredictable movements across divisions, with Division Three Minor Premier Warrandyte opting to remain in Division Three rather than moving up to Division Two.
Ryan Phillips explains the rationale for remaining in Division Three.
“The coaches and committee made the decision and I think they made the decision to stay in this division based on the fact we have a lot of young kids from under 19’s coming up.”
A gruelling pre-season is key to fast-tracking club’s success. Phillips has been impressed with the club’s pre-season and named notable standouts during the summer.
‘’Lachlan Pollock is. one of the fittest boys around at the club and can take that next step and Sean Jellie missed most of last season due to work but has really had a great pre-season.”
On the back of winning the Perc James Medal last season, Phillips hopes to develop his game by becoming a more selfless player for team success, albeit he was very honoured by the award and the importance of seeing key position players being rewarded for their efforts.
‘’It was very nice to have that recognition from the umpires, it gives you a lot of confidence that you can play some good football, but whether it’s making a contest somedays or kicking a bag another, I’m just happy to play my role.”
Chirnside Park’s Ben Slattery has been part of a side that went winless for two seasons before finishing the interrupted 2021 Division Four season in fourth.
He spoke of Chirnside’s promise in 2022.
‘’COVID made it difficult last season as we didn’t get to play all the teams so there’s obviously that element of surprise for us in 2022, but we believe with the personnel we have brought in we can beat any team on any given day,
“We’re hoping for at least a top two spot, Dave Newlands has been adamant from the start of pre-season that we should be targeting a top two spot.
An added focus on fitness over the summer’s break has the Panthers timing their run for Round One perfectly.
‘’Training has been full-on, running wise, we have been doing 8-10 kilometres per session, and that has been our focus,
“Last year we tended to start games really well, and then struggle to run the games out.”