By Josh Ward
There’s been something building at Surrey Park for a while, and season 2022 is the year to sit up and take notice.
After making their first finals appearance in 13 years in 2019, the men’s side were on track to not only make finals but also be a contender against Coldstream in 2021, finishing the interrupted 2021 season with a 9-3 record.
David Jensen recently told efnl.org.au that his side will be going through a lot more change this season.
“We’ve lost about 11 senior players from the side last year so there is going to be heaps of opportunities for guys,” Jensen said.
“It’s going to be a very different looking Surrey Park running out this year.”
Among the outs is Jordan Winter to rivals Nunawading as well as captain Matthew Dompietro who has retired.
Nick Snibson, Darcy Griffiths, Dylan Blackburn, Logan Deschepper, James Pritchard are some of the other names who have also moved on.
“We haven’t lost anybody to other clubs apart from Jordan. Everybody else has left because they’re going interstate or overseas or have retired.”
The Panthers have gained some Premier Division class with James Kenworthy and Parker Fox returning to the club.
Fox comes back after a one-year stint with Balwyn having played his junior career with the Panthers. Kenworthy on the other hand brings a decade worth of top division experience with Blackburn.
Kenworthy will also be a playing assistant coach, with Jensen excited about having someone of his quality as a line coach.
“We didn’t have line coaches last year, so it was really incumbent on the players and everything we were teaching them at training to the players to recognise what we were doing well, what needs to be fixed, what the opposition is doing on game day.
“And now to have someone like James as a line coach is going to add another layer for us, it’s huge.”
With these new signings and their losses, Jensen believes that the Panthers will be up there in 2022. However, he is wary of how competitive Division 4 will be this year, especially when finals come along.
“Because it’ll be a new look side for us, we’re going to wait and see how it goes.
“Hopefully we’re in that finals mix and I reckon with Division 4 any of the four that are there are a chance of winning it this year.”
The women’s program will enter its second year in the EFNL looking to improve from their bottom placed finish last year.
Whilst they lost 90% of their matches last year in Division 2, they still picked up one win in round three at home against Knox.
Women’s coach Steve De Franceschi said recently that their offseason has gone much better than in their inaugural season.
“This year I’ve already got 27 regulars on the list, with usually around 20 at training,
“Considering this time last year, I’d be getting home and looking at my wife saying, ‘I had four/five tonight’ where now I can at least say ‘I got close to 20 tonight’ to me it’s a pretty big difference.”
Whilst he’s pleased with the numbers coming down to training, De Franceschi is also happy the club has put more focus into the program.
“They back me all the way, whatever I’ve wanted to do they’re giving me a green light, so I have to give them a lot of credit too.
“They are giving them that opportunity to try different things and to give the girls a few little extra bits and pieces too.”
With the improvement in numbers and the help from the club, De Franceschi believes the side will continue to develop and grow in 2022.
“The reality is we’re still a developing team and we only won one game last year, we had a couple of close ones (too)…At the moment I’m happy if we win four or five games.”
“I think we are quite considerably a better team than what we were last year.”