By Ryan Long
The 2022 season will prove to be a big test for the youthful Lions who will be looking to find some improvement from their 2-8 record last year.
Despite being quite competitive against multiple of the Division Two contenders in 2021, Mulgrave was unable to translate that into many wins.
In his third year with the club, senior coach Ryan Webster is confident in his younger group to build on from last season’s results after another positive pre-season.
“The good thing is, it’s a young group and they’re learning every day,” Webster said.
“Hopefully we can execute a bit more of what we’ve been putting in place for the last two and a half years now.”
It will be a similar senior squad this season with only a few changes. The inclusion of James ‘Bobby’ McGivern will be an important one, coming from Caulfield Grammarians in the VAFA and having a strong pre-season.
“James McGivern has come to our club, Bobby’s going to be a great impact on us through the midfield this year as a young kid.”
“We made sure to focus on those organic recruitment opportunities and also just building our list from the good group of youth that we’ve got that will play at our club for the next eight to ten years.”
Webster is also looking forward to seeing how young stars such as Connor Tilyard, Jaxon Gervasoni and James Carden will progress their game further in 2022.
“Connor was great for us last year before he had that little niggle injury towards the end of the year and was still able to win our best and fairest in his first year so that’s great experience for him.”
“More football into Jaxon Gervasoni was great, he got the ability to learn how to handle more pressure after coming off a Division Best and Fairest previously so that was great for him in terms of experience, so he’s going to step up again.”
“James Carden is going to be really good for us, a bit more of a key man, forward and back, has had a really good pre-season.”
The future of Mulgrave is in good hands with the newer players being guided by experienced club legends such as big man Adam Booth and six-time club champion, Dean Siakoulis.
Due to the limited amount of football played over the last couple of years, Webster believes they’re in great condition, fit and raring to go for the season.
“Haven’t played a lot of footy due to covid, it’s almost like they’re jumping out of their skin to play, they’ve got fresh legs so age is not really a factor as much this year because they’ve only played a handful of games in two years.”
“The wear and tear of the body are a lot less than what it would have been if they had played two full seasons when you get towards the twilight of your career so that’s a bonus too.”
The club will also be forced to spend a little more time away from home with Mulgrave Reserve going through renovations this year.
It’s made things a little more challenging for the club who are looking to find other temporary home ground venues with the right facilities.
“We’re looking at all the other alternatives, even playing some feature games at some other teams in other division’s grounds to try and give us some opportunities to at least run some social events and get some money for the club.”
“It’s going to be a bit of an up and down season for us that way but it’ll only make us more resilient, happy to play away, hopefully, turn it into a positive for us.”
With a full pre-season under their belts, Ryan Webster is looking forward for the group to get back out there for an uninterrupted year.
“Watching this group put together a pretty decent pre-season again where they’ve busted their all to get ready to play football again.”
“It’s going to be great to get out there and enjoy it and have a bit of fun.”