Fairpark enter EFNL season 2021 eager to establish their place in Division Three, as the club celebrates its 50th season of competition.
After a memorable campaign in 2019 which saw the club win its first premiership since 1995, the newly-promoted Lions were keen to get back on Fairpark Reserve and mix it up with the rest of the EFNL’s third division.
Now in his fifth year at the helm, coach Sean Stanton says the long layoff between premiership glory and the return to senior football has still had positives hidden amongst the negatives.
“If there are any positives to come out of horrible negatives of COVID, then for us looking at it in a football sense, it would be that there was a lack of hunger off of the back of the success we had the previous year,”
“Things tracking along pre-season last year I’d say were fair at best,” Stanton said.
“However, having the time away from the football club and not playing has really changed the mindset of many of the playing group, and as a result there hasn’t been a huge number of things, we have had to do to stay focused.”
Stanton said he deployed a number of methods to keep his troops motivated and focused for footy during the hiatus.
“We had some little competitions just to keep the guys engaged, like fitness activities where we’d split the playing list up into groups and you could get points for your respective group by doing certain activities, a number of clubs are employing the same methods,”
“The best part of that is that we’ve had a fair number of our players come back in better shape than they’ve ever been in,”
“As a whole that’s been a positive, however, it’s one thing to be gym fit and it’s another to be match day fit in itself.”
Most of the 2019 premiership side will again don the red, blue and gold for 2021.
Skipper Jesse Pearce will again lead his side along with ruckman Kyle Hird and leading goal kicker Alex Mullucks.
Ben Macleod, who missed the 2019 premiership through injury, will also return to the club.
Among the departures are James Brown, who has gone to the AFL Outer East to play for Father Richard.
Stephen Colosimo (Yarra Junction) and Jack Dunn are also not returning for the Lions this year.
Stanton says the challenge of Division Three football is something not to be taken lightly, despite having some familial insight.
“I’ve got a little bit of inside knowledge from my older brother Justin, from having coached the Basin for the last couple of years. He’s been able to provide a bit of an insight into some of the teams in the division,” Stanton said.
“It’ll be a challenge because the difference from last year when we won the flag to this year, is that there was a game every three weeks where if you didn’t play well you could still get away with the four points,”
“Looking at results from last season, with the exception of South Belgrave, everyone could beat everyone on the day,”
“So, the challenge this year will be to get the entire playing group up to and maintaining their optimum every week, because the margin for error is a lot thinner.”
Fairpark will also be fielding an inaugural senior women’s team this year.
Treasurer Liam O’Brien said the club was looking forward to putting its first team on the park after the disruption of 2020.
“We’re really excited again to have the women’s team up and running for 2021. Obviously, we were disappointed last season as we had everything in place to get things up and running and it never happened,” O’Brien said.
“We’re really excited to have Simmo (Simon Aloi) and Gavin Fox on board in the coaching roles,”
“Both have been around the club for a number of years and have a drive to bring their knowledge to develop the women’s side.”
“The numbers at training have been good and they’re pushing it really hard,”
“The level of improvement over the last few weeks despite all the restrictions on training has been fantastic and we’re keen to get going.”
The club will also be celebrating its 50th year with the construction of a new pavilion in the final stages of development.
“We’re working with council at the moment as to the final design, where it’s going to be situated and things like that,”
“There’s been a lot of people doing the hard yards for such a long time to make this happen, so there’s a really good vibe at the club right now.”
Fairpark begins its 2021 EFNL season away to Ferntree Gully on Saturday 10th April 2020 with the women’s fixtures to be announced at a later date (at time of writing).