By Matt Fotia
Look out for a potent East Ringwood outfit in 2022, with Ben Osborne’s Roo’s looking a tantalising prospect in Division One this season, following the acquisition of some storied Eastern Football Netball League power players.
The Roo’s will enter the Division One season as the ‘hunted’, after they finished a clear second behind a now promoted Park Orchards outfit, a side they pushed right to the limit on both occasions last season.
Osborne is currently overseeing his third pre-season for just over half a season of action and says that pre-season fatigue is setting in, with numbers on the track only really starting to hit full throttle now.
“From what I’ve heard it’s been a lighter in terms of numbers across the league,
“After Christmas there’s been more and more numbers, and even though we’re all confident of the season going ahead in full, everyone is a little bit fatigued by it all,
“But we’re going well, our best players are training, and we’ve got a lot of VFL aligned players as well, we’ve got Sahaf Ali training with Box Hill, Connor Weightman at North Melbourne (VFL), Corey Preston at Williamstown and Marcus Kane at Port Melbourne.
“So, you know those guys will be very fit when they’re available for us.”
Talent won’t be the issue for East Ringwood in 2022, with some notable inclusions at both ends of the ground.
Key defender Troy Wright crosses over from Mooroolbark, filling a key position post down back, whilst South Croydon pair Jason Coghlan and Stephen Dinnell have come up the road from South Croydon.
“Wrighty was literally a needs-based inclusion with Walks (Dale Walker) going back to South and I’ve been trying to get Steve (Dinnell) for a while,
“He’s a teacher by trade and his knowledge of the game is sound, so once he said he was done with Premier Division I went a bit harder and it was a nice surprise for him to say yes so quickly,
“I’ll doubt he’ll play every game; it’ll be driven by how his body is, if he’s fit to play though, he’ll play.
“I just reached out to Cogo, he just wasn’t getting opportunities at South Croydon,
“Their list has obviously strengthened since the 2017 premiership every year, so in the end it was about playing at 2pm or 12pm and he wanted to play at 2pm,
“We’re lucky to have both of those two guys on our list this year.”
Another pair that East Ringwood are lucky to have pulling on the jumper are the Farmer boys, with Trent and Mitch deciding to shift East from Jubilee Park for season 2022, without much effort from the Roo’s on the recruitment front.
Trent, one of the best forwards across the entire EFNL, and Mitch will bring goals to East Ringwood and provide Osborne some more flexibility when it comes to some of his other stars, most notably James Belo.
“We haven’t had a key forward for a while and Trent’s an out and out one,
“Even with Mitch and James (Belo) swapping because they can both go forward and kick goals,
“James is a brilliant on-baller and now when he rests forward the defenders have got to choose between him or Trent Farmer and they haven’t had to make that decision previously,
“It makes us a lot more potent.”
That added potency has given Osborne a fair chunk of confidence ahead a highly anticipated Division One season, but the former Coburg assistant is wary of several sides in 2022.
“We’re confident with how we’ll go this year,
“Beaconsfield will be an interesting one, I think they’ll be quite strong, Montrose will improve, and Mooroolbark pushed us last year, Croydon’s best was really good last year, and Wantirna South have had a bit of time to gel.”
There’s been a change of coach for the Roo’s women, with former player Adrian Fittolani taking over from women’s football stalwart Peter Baker ahead of the 2022 campaign, with Baker stepping into the junior ranks.
Fittolani had been interested in returning to coaching circles and is relishing his new role.
“I think Bakes was keen to get back into the junior ranks and bring things up from the bottom,” said Fittolani of his predecessor’s decision.
“I’d been talking to Pete for a while about getting back into coaching, and at the end of last year he rang me up.
“I’m loving it (the role),
“The biggest thing so far is getting on the phone and making sure that we’ve got a squad who’s training, so that we can hit the season confident in ourselves,
“At this point last year from all reports they had five players and were really scrambling, but we’ve got 15 plus on the track each night with 10 apologies, so we’re looking at 25 players who are keen to pull on the jumper.”
With consistent numbers on the training track, there’s a big opportunity for Fittolani and the Roo’s to build something big for the future off the back of a strong 2022 season and the first-year coach is aware of the chance that has presented itself, working with the pre-existing leaders to really stamp a brand up the East Ringwood women.
“We want to be known for something,” Fittolani said.
“We’ll be a developing side again this year and our focus is on building a foundation for the future,
“A year where we develop a game style, develop a reputation and philosophy that we can take into the future,
“I’ve been working – since last November – with the leadership group from last year,
“They’ve been instrumental in helping me to develop and communicate that philosophy to the new and existing players.”
