By Ryan Long
It’s an exciting time to be a part of the North Ringwood Football Club with both the men’s and women’s teams competing in high divisions on the field while the club is striving for more success off it.
Ex-Richmond and North Melbourne star Robin Nahas came to the club in 2020 as the Senior Coach of the men’s side and went about creating an exciting fast brand of football, which was evident across the 2021 season, with the Saints involved in numerous goal frenzies.
“It’s my third year at the club and I’ve coached eight games, so it’s been a bit challenging,” Nahas said.
“But on the positive side, it’s given us the opportunity to get three pre-seasons worth into a team with structure and understanding of a game plan.”
The side finished last year with a record of 3 and 6, finishing ninth on the ladder.
Nahas has noted that their key weaknesses revolved around some of the basics of the game which has been a major focus this pre-season tied with their fitness.
“Skill execution, contest work and decision making, I think that’s the fundamentals of most people’s game plans, so we’ve done a truckload of work on those three things,”
“I think fitness, you can stay in games for a lot longer at this level if you can compete for longer, I know that sounds pretty simple but the only way to compete and stay in games is to be fit enough,”
“So, we’ve done a lot of work on trying to get these guys fit and ready to work at a level required but time will tell.”
There have been a few changes to the list with the club losing Billy Schilling and Jake Moss among others. However, they’ve bolstered their stocks up forward with the recruitment of ex-Heidelberg player and star of the television program ‘The Recruit’, Jordan Treloar.
Treloar hasn’t played football for a few years now after stepping away from the game, but Nahas is confident he’ll be an important figure up forward this season for the Saints, especially after a dominant pre-season match performance.
“He’ll play predominately full-forward, he’s got exceptional hands,”
“So, if we can get him there competing and doing what he did on the weekend, if he plays like that most weeks, I’ll be pretty happy,”
“He’s got sticky hands, good kick for goal and gets around the ground pretty easily.”
With a connection to Montrose coach Gary Ayres, Nahas and the club were able to organise a practice game against the Demons where they had the opportunity to play some of their younger talent from the Under 19’s and Reserves team.
Despite a heavy loss to the Dees, there were still a lot of positives to take from the game.
“We played a lot of kids on the weekend, it was a really good learning curve for the kids, and we found a few players at the same time,”
“it’s disappointing to start the practice match season like that but you’ve got to put in perspective as well so it’s okay,”
“Jordan Milne was really good on the weekend, he’s a young 19-year-old, he’s class.”
“Jackson Braunthal and Christian Ciampa as a small forward, just aggressive and just chased and tackled all day.”
Nahas believes the club is set up perfectly for the future with the club in a strong position both on and off the field.
“We’ve got such an advantage with how many junior teams we have; I think we’ve got 500 junior kids in our program,”
“Lee Robinson was fantastic, he left the club in a great position, now we’ve got Steve taking over who just loves it, he comes from a marketing background and he’s extremely good at what he does,”
“At the moment, we’re in a strong position off-field and all we need to do is tap into our junior community as we have so far this year, trying to build a really strong pathway from junior football to senior football and if we can get this right, we’ll be okay.”
The North Ringwood women’s team are also making a lot of progress as they prepare for their second season in division one after their 2019 premiership.
Coach Julian Hansen was happy with how the girls handled the step up, asserting themselves into the division.
“The quality of football was no doubt better but with that said though, we did win our first game and went on to win three games for the season,”
“It felt like the longer the season was going, the better we were getting so once the girls started to get a bit of belief in themselves, they felt like they belonged, it was a mental thing more than anything.”
The side has been busy this off-season, bringing some new girls to the team while using this pre-season to increase the girls’ fitness, working alongside the men’s team.
“We’ve recruited really well driven by the players, that’s one thing.”
“Second thing is, we’re really tapping into training with the men, we have end to end drills on Wednesday nights and we have fitness running with the men on Thursday nights.”
The girls’ first test this year was a successful one, coming away with an impressive win against Montrose in a practice match.
“Our fitness is really standout for us, so we ended up winning quite convincingly with low numbers of players,”
“It’s a testament to the way we’re gelling and embracing the concept of how we’re playing and just buying into the way we function as a team.”
Led by Skipper Tayla Deane and stars such as Chloe Rice and Jess Reid, Hansen believes that this side is on the right track and has every chance to perform
“You don’t want to overstate it, but I think this year we’ve got an opportunity,
“I don’t want to set any benchmarks, but I do think this team can be successful this year.”
North Ringwood has built a very strong culture with the development of the women’s program, it’s something that Hansen is proud to be a part of.
“I love that the women love their footy, I love how much the club has really invested in the women’s team,”
“The club can see how important the women’s team is to the club,”
“The most satisfying thing is that the women enjoy their footy and that’s why they play footy.”