By Josh Ward
Bayswater will be looking to climb back up the First Division table in 2022 after a disappointing 2021 season.
Following two consecutive finals appearances in 2018 and 2019, the young Waters side dropped down last year to eighth with a 3-8 record.
Senior coach Tom Roach recently told efnl.org.au that his team is starting to look sharp ahead of the season kicking off this weekend.
“[An issue] last year was probably the fact we weren’t able to see out four quarters or maintain the required intensity for long enough in games,” Roach said.
“We’re working really hard on the fitness of the boys and the high intensity efforts and stuff like that so you should see a slightly fitter team this year.”
They’ve also been bolstered this offseason by the return of some of their 2016 premiership stars, with the McInerney brothers (Wayne and Scott) and Hayden Schroeder coming back after brief stints away.
Scott and Wayne come back from Third Division clubs Glen Waverley and Ferntree Gully respectively, with Scott playing all games for the Hawks in 2021 and Wayne being the club leading goalkicker down at Wally Tew with 20 goals in nine games.
Roach said that whilst he was happy, they came back, he wasn’t fully expecting them to return to Bayswater Oval.
“When they left, they probably thought that’d be it, but sometimes the grass isn’t always greener,” he said.
“You might think that you’ve had enough of a particular footy club because you’ve been there so long, or you wanted opportunities elsewhere but then you realise it’s a pretty good place to be.”
“I think they thought that, especially Wayne [because] if he plays another year, he’ll be a life member, which is something he’s really keen on doing and then Scotty was keen to play another couple of years with his brother.”
Roach said he’s also happy that Schroeder has come back to the club having spent the past few years abroad.
“It’s good that he’s finally come back, we missed him, he’s a great player.”
Damian Murray also joins the Waters following a stint with Emerald in the Outer East and ex-Bayswater Under 19 B&F winner Jai Melchiorre comes back after spending one with Seville.
They have lost a couple this offseason though, including B&F winner Kurt Lopo who has linked up with Edithvale-Aspendale in the MPNFL.
Whilst Roach admits it is a big blow given Lopo’s quality as a player, he added that with some of the other younger recruits in Alex Young from Balwyn and Jake Bourke from Norwood that they’ll be able to cover for his loss
“It’ll be hard to replace 30 possessions a game, but if three or four players can run through there to give us a helping hand it should help.”
And whilst Roach believes they will be set to improve this year, he added that with the recruiting of the other Division 1 clubs they’ll be around that mid-table mark.
“We weren’t far off last year; we were probably in that sixth-ninth realm. I think [this year] we’ll be pushing for finals, hopefully sneaking into fourth or fifth.”
