By Davis Harrigan
From Division Four in 2019 to Division Two in 2022. That’s the pace that East Burwood have been moving through the EFNL’s tiers, albeit in an unconventional manner.
After 2021 brought wins against top five teams Warrandyte and Donvale, but losses to Ferntree Gully and Waverley Blues on the flip side, there are plenty of challenges ahead for East Burwood as they take yet another step up.
The future is looking rather bright, and coach Stuart Wynd is keen to take this opportunity with both hands.
“We’ve been lucky the last couple of years to go up, we haven’t won a premiership and we’ve still been able to go up two years in a row.
“We were good enough to win enough games last year to finish second on the ladder, and they gave us the option,” Wynd said.
“When you get the opportunity, you sort of have to take it.
“If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. But at least we can say we had a go, and if we keep our list together, we can certainly survive and push the majority of the sides.”
There’s been an investment into a large group of players coming up from the clubs Premier Division under 19s side that will form part of East Burwood’s core in the future.
“There’s 20 under 19s that have come up this year, and they all played as top age players last year, so this year they’re mainly turning 21 and they’re all a very good age, and there’s some real quality coming through there.
“We haven’t picked up any big names, but we’re going to put a fair bit of time into our kids.
“A few blokes just come through mates who we think are going to be pretty good, and we’ve picked up Marcus Young from Blackburn, but we lost six or seven pretty good players.”
The Rams have a naturally attacking style of footy, and in 2022, the essentials will stay the same, although there will need to be some adaptations made to compensate for the lack of height, there is still plenty of trust in their ability and system.
“We certainly like attacking and kicking goals, we like being pretty aggressive around the stoppages and we back our back six to get the job done,” Wynd said.
“That won’t change too much but we have lost a bit of height this year, so we’re going to be quicker this year and have to work to move the ball quickly.”
Following such a sharp rise through the league, Wynd is aware that improving their bottom end is the key to maintaining their current trends.
“We’re going to come up against some pretty good sides this year.
“The competitions close, so hopefully our best game and our worst game are pretty close together,” Wynd said.
“We’re just looking for consistency, and when you have young players that haven’t played a lot of senior footy that are getting opportunities this year, you just want to see them grow each week and get better.
If we can 5 to 7 good senior players out of that young group, we’ll be pretty happy.”
Coming into Round One, and with the prospect of competing in a new division against teams the club hasn’t faced for a while, there’s a definite air of enthusiasm about what comes next – and letting the results speak for themselves.
“The start of the year is always exciting, we’re playing a different group of teams we haven’t played for a while, so that’s exciting times for the club,” Wynd said.
“We’ve got a senior women’s team for the first time this year, so there’s a pretty good buzz around the footy club at the moment, and the boys have just had a massive pre-season.
“They’re fit and ready to go, so we’re not worried about the other teams and whether we’re good enough, that’ll take care of itself, and we’ll certainly find out soon enough.”
East Burwood are stepping into EFNL women’s football with excitement and passion and have brought in the experienced Ali Rock as their inaugural coach.
With a wealth of football knowledge being brought to the table, the focus has been on getting the best out of everyone that’s pulling on a Rams jumper.
“The girls have been putting in a lot of effort, and they’ve been really keen to get back into it, post COVID, with opportunities opening up, to be socialising was really good,” Rock said.
“There’s definitely been a certain excitement around the club, getting a girls’ team on the track for the first time, supporting us in our endeavours.
“Where we’re tracking, we’ve found things have slowed down a little bit.
“I feel now, trying to get those numbers back to where the girls are consistently committing again to training, has proven to be a bit difficult, so there’s a variety of challenges.”
The level of investment and time involved to build up the side has been immense, but the end result will be seeing the improvement and the desire to be out on the footy field.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, myself and my assistant coach Charlotte Mahoney in just trying to recruit girls as well.
“Making phone calls, putting themes on training sessions, making videos to entice them down, those activities just to try and gain momentum,” Rock said.
“Coming from a team that’s starting from scratch, that’s been a lot of work, a lot of phone calls, a lot of reaching out to girls that have perhaps never played football before and still thinking of giving it a go.”
With the team now beginning to take shape, and players of all skills and abilities joining, some having their first proper crack at the game, Rock could not be happier with how things are progressing, and how many are enthusiastic about having a go.
“It’s about 50 percent each way which is cool.
“It’s awesome to see girls come down and still want to try something for the first time, and they bring a lot of character and personality,” she said.
“They’ve decided to give it a go, and they’re being vulnerable, learning something new and putting themselves out there.
“We just welcome those girls with arms wide open, because they just add so much to the atmosphere.
“The 50 percent that have played before, they’re good role models, and they lead by example. They know the importance of having girls of all abilities come down to the club.”
Communication is another work in progress, but patience is going to be a virtue, with this being new territory for the club, for the coach, and the players.
But fun will be the main mantra for the team this season – just by being out there, and just competing, is going to be the most important element of 2022.
“That’s the message, at the end of the day if you can make the environment fun, inclusive, have a good culture, then other things start to set in place.
“Other important factors start to sink as well, and you start to get a roll-on things,” Rock said.
“We know we’ve got a variety of players with all different skills, and we’re prioritising the fact we want girls involved in having fun.”