By Ryan Long
After a season of highs and lows in 2021, Silvan have given themselves every chance to contend for their first senior premiership since 2014, after an active off-season transfer period.
The Cats were in the hunt for a potential shot at a flag last year before the season was cut short due to Covid-19 guidelines. Despite sitting just outside the top four, the Cats were the only Division Four team to get within five goals of the undefeated Minor Premiers Coldstream.
Senior Coach Trent Martin knew that the group had the potential of making a deep run come September.
“The way last year finished, we beat Forest Hill by 12 goals coming into our last game, we were really confident we would have got that fourth spot with the way the fixture was looking,” Martin said.
“If we had played the season out, we felt like we would have had a red-hot crack at it(premiership).”
After a productive off-season with a couple of important recruits, the club is now in an even better position to challenge for that elusive Division Four premiership.
The Cats have recruited some big names such as the x-factor talent Justin Ficorilli from Croydon, who booted over 250 goals for the Blues across a lengthy spell in the league’s top two divisions.
“He’s been probably the biggest recruit in the Division,
“Coming from Croydon, I think that he’s the perfect fit for the footy club.”
“He’s a little Italian farmer, he’s bought straight into the club, he’s a playing assistant.”
Ficorilli finished with 14 goals in 11 games for the Blues last year in Division One with six votes in the League Best and Fairest. The star forward is sure to make the Cats forward line look a lot more dangerous and cause many a headache for opposition defences.
Silvan hasn’t stopped there when it comes to recruiting other experienced heads such as James Charge and Jamie Haag.
“They’ve both played a lot of footy at higher levels.”
“Jamie Haag, I’ve played with him at Croydon, he’s a dominant half back.
“Charge is a ruck man that we’ve always needed, he won a league medal in the old Yarra Valley comp.”
“We were a ruck man short of being competitive (against Coldstream) in the end, that’s why we brought James to the club, he’s a pretty unique player,” Martin said.
“He’s come to us saying I want to finish on a high and dominate the comp.
“We were a ruck man short and we identified that and we were a dangerous forward short and we got Ficorilli.”
Consistency has been something the club is keen on improving from a week-to-week basis and with the personnel that they’ve brought to the club, it’s something Martin hopes will change.
“The biggest thing was personnel, to add to the list of under 19’s that won the flag a couple of years ago.
“We retain them as senior players and think we’re in a pretty good position,” Martin said.
“In this lower comp, you’re only as good as your bottom five or six players, if you add a bit of depth at the end, which we’ve hopefully done, we’ll be better across the board.”
With Coldstream being elevated to Division Three, the race to the 2022 premiership is now wide open with just seven teams in the competition. A positive pre-season down at the Cattery has the group raring to go for the beginning of the season in April.
“We’re hoping to be right at the pointy end.
“The development’s still going to be there but we have a lot of respect in our best 22.”
“We keep telling them that they’re men and that they should be able to hold their own as young men rather than kids now so we’ve got to be at the pointy end of this comp or we’re wasting our time.”
The Cats kick start their 2022 campaign against Croydon North MLOC in Round One on the 2nd of April.
