By Tash Gunawardana
The 2022 season marks Morris D’Alessandro’s fifth season at the Blues and he is just eager to see what his young team can produce in 2022 as he was way back when he first took the reins.
In 2021, the Blues were the main premiership threat after going down in the grand final by 36-points to Doncaster East back in 2019. But the Blues did not get a chance to prove themselves in finals, due to COVID cancelling the finals series, with the club sitting 4th in a hotly contested top five.
Croydon did not have the huge recruiting drive that it did in 2021, although seven players left the club most notably lively and threatening forward Justin Ficorilli who has moved to Silvan Football Club.
Ficorilli is a huge loss for Croydon as he scored 250 goals for the club and last season, he kicked 14 goals in the 11 matches he played in Division One with six votes in the League Best and Fairest.
The Blues will be hoping that a player can step up and fill the massive hole left by Ficorilli in their forward line this season.
The Blues have recruited two new players to the club including Ben Jackson from Wantirna South and Corey McKenzie from Vermont.
Senior Coach Morris D’Alessandro explained that his team’s age demographic is unique.
“I think our age demographics are still quite young even though some of the players have been around for quite a little while,” D’Alessandro said.
“I think there is some real improvement out of those guys who are maturing a little bit now into their bodies, so there is a lot of upside still at the Croydon Football Club.”
Preseason at gone well at the Blues and D’Alessandro cannot wait to see what his boys can produce on the footy field.
“From the coaching point of view, it’s been a good preseason, pretty solid,” he said.
“The boys are working pretty hard and are in real good condition at the moment.”
Over the preseason, the Blues have focussed on one main area that was a weakness of theirs in 2021.
“Definitely our fitness.
“We have really focussed on our fitness, because we thought that last year we weren’t as fit as we could have been, so it’s been a real key area for us and the boys have responded,” D’Alessandro said.
D’Alessandro expects a great season from Fraser Smith who has worked hard during preseason.
“I think Fraser Smith, he’s come back in absolute amazing shape and will continue to be a strong and consistent defender for us,
“I think he is going to go to a new level this season and obviously there’s a few boys that were carrying a few injuries last year that will probably stand up.”
The Blues fans should also anticipate a good season from Co-Captain Billy Dickson who has had a solid preseason and is ready to tackle 2022.
D’Alessandro wants his Croydon fans to get enthusiastic about their young team, because the boy’s bodies have matured now with another preseason and more game time.
“We will continue to develop our group and play a really exciting brand of football.”