By Josh Ward
Both of Croydon North MLOC’s men and women had promising seasons in 2021 and the KangaRams will look to build on in 2022.
After going winless in their first season in the EFNL, the KangaRams improved immensely in 2021, winning two games en route to 7th on the ladder.
Their first ever win came against fellow strugglers Nunawading and their second came against Kilsyth, who had defeated them earlier in the year by 104 points.
Senior coach Mark Holly told efnl.org.au that this year his side had much more experience than their first two seasons.
“We used to be the club for young kids that had never played before or juniors that had a couple years off,” Holly said.
“We’ve finally now got players coming across that have played some senior football or high-level reserves from higher level divisions”.
The club has brought in 28 recruits, with some coming from EFNL clubs such as East Ringwood, South Belgrave, and Norwood.
Holly said that these recruits have helped the younger players.
“They’ve got smiles on their faces because they’re getting taught the rights and wrongs of football,
“Now you can see it in their minds and the way they’re training that they’re actually understanding the concept of football because they’ve got those smarter brains around them.”
Whilst the side has brought in plenty of fresh faces, the KangaRams haven’t lost too many either. Holly said this has been key to the side bonding and improving this offseason.
“The last two years we haven’t been able to hold onto our list, we’ve been practically replacing our list every year, so it’s taken a long time to bond.
“[This year] we’ve held onto around 95% of our list from last year, which is huge for us.”
Holly added that the team is confident they can improve this coming season, especially after getting two wins last year.
“We have finally got some belief, and that’s why the boys came back because they know what we can do when we get a good run at it,” he said.
“The confidence from these blokes is unbelievable for that reason, we now know we can compete, and we’ve been waiting six months to finally put it back on the track and get another crack at it.”
They face a challenge first up out at Silvan, however Holly said that they’ll head into the game looking to win it.
“We’re going in to try and win that game of football, but deep down I feel that there is that opportunity where we still might not be gelling just yet and it could turn ugly.”
On the other hand, the women’s side come into this season looking to continue from their terrific finish last year.
After only winning one in their first season, they won six more last year and despite starting 0-2 they came home in red hot form, winning seven of their last eight by an average of 68 points.
Women’s coach John Hayhurst said preparation is going a lot better than last year, with plenty of girls from different paths of life signing up already.
“We’re starting to develop a really deep squad, which is important for the longevity of our season,” Hayhurst said.
“I’ve got many different types of women playing, I’ve got mothers with two or three kids, 18-year-olds, 25-year-olds, and 30+ year olds so there’s some diversity, which is what you expect.”
Hayhurst added that they had also brought in players who bring 10 years of footy experience with them.
“That makes a big difference for a women’s team.
“That’s a bonus for the whole group too because they’ll become teachers of the game.”
They have had a few losses this offseason, including Division Three Team of the Year member and Best and Fairest Hailee Stokes.
Stokes played 10 games in her only year with the KangaRams, kicking 20 goals and getting 19 votes in the Best and Fairest count.
Hayhurst said the reason she had left them was because the Western Bulldogs had shown an interest in her joining their program.
“She’s left our club and is going to play in first division, which is part of the criteria with the AFLW/VFLW is that if they play the highest, they can then they can assess how good these players are,” he said.
“I understand that she’s left on good terms and the door’s always open.
“She’s a lovely girl too and we’re right behind her.”
Despite losing Stokes though, Hayhurst is confident that the side can be a finals contender in 2022.
“We’ve been speaking to our girls about how we need to start off the way we finished off last season,” Hayhurst said.
“We had seven wins out of 10 games last year, so they know what it takes to win, and we’ve been reinforcing that with them for a couple of weeks now.”