After finishing 2019 with only three wins, the Glen Waverley Hawks have used the past 12 months to reinvigorate their list in order to return to Division Three as a new and improved side.
Senior coach, Dylan Price, said the boys are excited to be back playing football and are trying not to “take it for granted like we probably have in past seasons”.
“We’ve had a good preseason, we’ve had good numbers and everyone is just looking forward to getting back to competitive footy again,” Price said.
2020 saw the Glen Waverley undertake an aggressive recruiting spree in the hopes of bolstering its depth.
Having retained the majority of the list from 2019, strong recruiting and added depth in the reserves are the two keys to the Hawks becoming finals contenders in 2021.
“Prior to 2020, we sort of did a pretty targeted recruiting run based on the types of players we needed to bring in, but we were always keen to retain the original guys we had,” Price said.
“It’s been such a long time since the 2019 season has been played that we think we’re quite a different list and in a different position as a club.
“Just by having a greater volume of players, we feel that’s important and hopefully we will have a strong reserves team that will put pressure on guys for senior spots.
“There’s no doubt that some of our younger guys have matured and come on a lot since 2019 as well.”
With depth Glen Waverley’s new calling card, the club should be better poised to deal with injuries.
However, Price said he believes it will be the new recruits who make the most difference.
“We’ve sort of just done a gradual build over the last two years,” he said.
“Mainly set to come in for the 2020 season, we had brought back guys who didn’t play in 2019. So to now finally be getting back Luke Broad and Jack Steinfort, as guys who have been really important to the club for a number of years, is huge.
“As far as recruits from other clubs, we’ve brought in Ned Bradley as a ruckman and a key forward. We’ve managed to get Andrew Clifford, who played at Knox originally but has been out of the game up in Queensland for a while, and we got Scott Davis from Knox too.
“They are all pretty important recruits for us to have brought in.”
Glen Waverley is expecting to have its entire list available for selection come Round One.
Price said he’s immensely impressed with the fitness of the group, with players having regularly completed individual fitness sessions throughout the multiple COVID-related lockdowns.
“The fitness is probably the best it’s ever been and I think that’s sort of the general consensus throughout a lot of clubs in the league,” he said.
“Having that year off and a bit of extra time for guys to get healthy, there’s less injuries and the guys are in really good shape.
With fitness less of an issue, Price said he’s been thrilled to be able to focus the majority of his side’s offseason sessions on skills work and building up match practice.
He said the importance of getting touch and match simulation into the boys can’t be understated because of how much they missed out on last year.
Following a disappointing campaign in 2019, the Hawks are determined to claw their way out of the bottom half of the ladder.
However, possessing little to no knowledge of where the rest of the competition is at, Price said he is being cautious when it comes to setting lofty expectations.
“We haven’t set ourselves any goals as far as where we want to finish on the ladder, just because of the uncertainty,” he said
“I don’t really know, as far as the opposition, where everyone sits so we’re more just looking at keeping expectations in-house and making sure we’re competitive and playing to the best of our ability each game.
“We’ll sort of be setting ourselves milestones as the season unfolds and we’ll be flexible with them.”
For Price, he said the most important part of this coming season is going to be enjoying it. The trainings, the footy and the club culture in general are all things that have been sorely missed over the past 12 months.
“I think as a club, we did really well in that non-season last year with staying connected,” Price said.
“In saying that, the ability to spend time with each other again and test yourself out against your mates is so exciting because we all missed it so much.
“I’m just happy footy is back.”
Glen Waverley host Scoresby on Saturday April 10 to kick off their 2021 season.
