Berwick is as ready as it can be for what’s coming in its new found home, with both coaches prepping their squads for the challenges that lay ahead in season 2021.
New men’s coach Clint Evans hasn’t had the easiest introduction to the job at Edwin Flack.
The senior role only became available at the end of a tumultuous week for the club near the conclusion of the 2019 season.
The Wickers were set to be welcomed into the EFNL in the same week they took on local rivals Narre Warren in the AFL Outer East Premier Division Grand Final, a game the Wickers were expected to win comfortably following their minor premiership.
After the initial disapproval of their application to join the EFNL, the club were then dealt another double dose of pain when coach Rhys Nisbet announced he would be stepping down following the Grand Final – a game they would go on to lose.
But all of that is behind them now, as the south east powerhouse look forward to their debut in the EFNL, eager with anticipation over the unfamiliar.
“We’re going into a little bit of the unknown, even though we know how good eastern footy is, there’s going to be a lot of trial and error for us as we look to be as competitive as we can be,” said Evans.
“But without knowing that much about what other sides are going to be like, it’s going to be hard to know how we’re going to go,”
“We’ll find out soon enough though.”
Berwick have seen the recruitment benefits of their move to the EFNL, with a number of players coming to the club to test themselves at a higher level, including former club captain Bryce Rutherford and outside runner Trent Thomas along with ex opponents Anthony Vella and Anthony Burr from Cranbourne (via Noble Park).
“Coming across to what we consider a better competition we thought we might be able to recruit a few (of the best South East talent) and get those boys who went to Noble Park and a like back,”
“Outside of that our recruitment has been pretty much, mates of mates and that sort of thing and we’re pretty happy with the list we’ve got so far.”
Transitioning from the hunted to the hunter is going to be an interesting one for Evans and his group as he looks to build upon the Wickers game style from 2019, where they hit the scoreboard with freedom in the AFL Outer East.
“We’re going to have to be defensively minded going into this division, but there’s going to be two types of game style,”
“There’ll be one for playing on our big deck and then we’ll adjust to the smaller grounds where we’ll have to be more defensive – and we think we’ve got a really good defensive unit,”
“We’re hoping to pick between 26-30 guys (across the year) and it’ll be horses for courses on how we’re going to approach each game.”
“We’re not going to be overly tall, so it might be that on the smaller grounds we might want to play six or seven on ballers that can run through there (the middle), but then on our ground we might want more half forwards and wingmen who can carry the football.”
Meanwhile, Women’s coach Matt De Poilly is jumping into his own version of the unknown, with his current role at Edwin Flack Reserve his first Senior coaching job.
De Poilly said that his female outfit have found a good mix between experience and youth heading into their first year in sometime.
“(It’s) a few weeks into our pre-season now and we’ve got just over 20 players on the list, which we’re pretty happy with as we build towards our first season in quite a while,”
“We’ve got a good mix of new players and experienced players and it’s been quite a wild ride trying to get the coaching balance right between the real basics and also developing those with a bit more experience.”
De Poilly has utilised those experienced charges to help aid his coaching methods.
“It’s been great having those experienced players to lean on, and they’ve been really good at developing the younger girls that are coming through,”
“We’ve also got a number of Under 18 girls who are more footy experienced than others in the squad, so it’s been both challenging and rewarding.”
Much like their male counterparts, De Poilly believes that the female program will be heading into the season of great tests, with little to no knowledge about their opponents.
“I think it’s going to be a really great challenge for us to enter the EFNL straight away, even though we don’t know exactly where we are at, having never played a game before (as a collective), but having a really good mix of girls is going to give us a really good opportunity to compete,”
“But with pretty much two pre-seasons without a game we’re really just keen to get out there and play some games and compete.”
Berwick’s Men’s side open their season with a home game against Noble Park on the 17th of April. Their women’s fixture is yet to be confirmed at time of writing.