Following 2020’s enforced break from footy, Rowville is looking to reset ahead of its 2021 campaign in an attempt to secure yet another Premier Division finals berth.
2019 saw the club finish fourth before being knocked out in the first week.
Following an up-and-down 12 months for everyone, first year senior coach, Ben Wise, said he’s looking forward to getting the boys back into rhythm and ideally bringing them back into Premier Division’s top five.
Set to coach his first game at the helm of Rowville’s seniors in a few weeks, Ben Wise said he’s been enjoying the simple things during preseason, like getting everyone out on the park together.
“Everyone’s really keen, obviously having the year off, pre-Christmas for me was all about re-engaging everyone and not going too hard on them and just getting the legs moving,” he said.
“I’m just trying to get the enjoyment back and the love back for everyone.”
With strong numbers on the track, Wise said he’s been progressively increasing the intensity of training since returning from Christmas break.
“We have really good numbers, good turnout. Probably 50 on the track most nights with really good engagement from the under 19s,” Wise said.
“It’s just good to get around everyone and just get a little bit of freedom.
“Post-Christmas trainings’ have been pretty full on…the conditioning has gone up a level, a lot more match simulation stuff, so yeah, it’s been nothing but positive.”
Despite the positive return to training, an unfortunate reality for Rowville has been the restructuring of its list from 2019 to 2021.
Over the 2020 offseason, regrettably, some key players decided to leave the club which has cost the squad some of its most influential leaders.
“We’ve had a little bit of reshuffling,” Wise said.
“We lost a little bit of leadership and experience.
“Anthony Brolic’s gone back to VFL to have another crack at state level, Riley D’Arcy is doing the same at Frankston and Taine Barlow, who had a breakout season for us two years ago, is going down to have a crack at Frankston as well.”
However, despite the losses, Rowville has managed to retain the bulk of its 2020 recruits and almost all of the clubs under 19s have returned for a crack at senior footy.
“We recruited really, really well heading into the 2020 season,” Wise said.
“We got Nathan Wright on board, Chayce Black from VFL, Liam Mackie from VFL also, and Trent Minor came back too.
“The main thing for me when I took over…it was really important to just keep what I had in terms of the kids coming out of the under 19 program.
“We’ve got some really good kids coming through like Lachie Stapleton, He’s going to VFL but hopefully we’ll see a bit of him. Overall we’ve got plenty of kids coming through that came out of the Rangers program.”
Initially Wise expressed some concern towards his list, citing its youth as a possible drawback in terms of experience, however, he was confident “once we get a few of those VFL boys back in, we’re going to be okay”.
“I’m pretty happy with where the list is at,” he said.
One of the most important silver linings from the enforced break for Rowville is the opportunity for players to return from long-term injuries.
The extra 12 months off has provided some important players with the time they needed to come back from serious injuries at their own pace, without any urgency or pressure.
“Alex Frawley is coming off two ankle surgeries…we get Jackson McDonald back who is a state representative…he comes back from an ankle surgery,” Wise said.
“We also get Jackson Anderson back from overseas who had had VFL experience before…and our best and fairest from three years ago, Matty Traynor, he’s coming back from a knee reconstruction.
“We get all those guys who are around 25-28-years-old back and they will sort of be able to fill the void of those that have left, they’ll come in and play those roles.”
Although Rowville’s list has undergone some change and Wise is yet to coach a senior match for the club, he said he is confident the boys have what it takes to compete with the top end of Premier Division.
“Finals are our aim and that’s just a mindset that the club’s had since I’ve been down there,” Wise said.
“We’re not making up the numbers and are actually putting finals as an expectation.
“You don’t know how much people have dropped off so I’ve just got to concentrate on our boys to make sure I get them fit enough and put them in the best position to compete again.”
Following a flag in 2019, Rowville’s senior women’s coach, Sean Alston, has recommitted to the club for 2021.
Excited to return, Alston said he’s injected some youth into the list and is hopeful for more success in the club’s future.
“Our premiership year we had a lot of players in that 24-27-year-old range but now we’ve got some 18, 19, 20-year-olds which is great for the future,” he said.
“They’re also all really keen after the year off to just get out there and play again.”
Key inclusions for the club include the likes of former Rowville Knights junior Hannah Morrison. The 18-year-old is joining the seniors program after a successful junior career and brings with her a number of other promising youngsters formerly from the juniors.
“They just add a bit of pace on the outside and a bit of skill as well,” Alston said.
“It’s that generation where they’ve played footy since under 12s and have just got that general expertise with how to move and how to tackle.
“It’s also an injection of a bit of enthusiasm as well.”
With the restructure of the women’s leagues, Alston doesn’t yet know which division his side will be competing in. However, despite the uncertainty, he is still happily setting expectations as lofty as possible to ensure he doesn’t undershoot the mark.
“I generally, as a default, aim high and I actually try and avoid the cliché of just ‘one week at a time’, I prefer to go ‘let’s just aim the bar as high as possible and then see if we can get there,’” he said.
“I think having kept a lot of our talent and added a bit more, we will absolutely try and go back-to-back and win the flag again.
“We’ve been back into it the last three or four weeks and we’ve already had some girls trickle in who can really play.”
A strong retention rate among past players and even stronger recruiting early in the offseason has afforded Alston the benefit of getting the players straight into training, building up continuity and familiarity amongst the squad after so much time off.
As a result, Alston said he is looking to make training more technical and structured as soon as possible.
“I always encourage the girls to try and think strategically as opposed to just witches’ hat drills,” he said.
“We’ll start introducing more of the technical side of things with game plan very soon. Focusing on game sense and structural sort of stuff so when we get into that first practice match there isn’t too much that’s foreign to the squad.”
Rowville has the bye to start the 2021 season and will take the field for the first time when they host newcomers Berwick in round two (April 24). The Women’s fixture is yet to be confirmed at time of writing.