45 DAYS TO GO | EFL Media will be previewing each club ahead of the 2019 season with the #InFocus2019 series, all thanks to Yarra Valley Water & Choose Tap.
By: Daniel Cencic
THEY are the Eastern Football League’s new kids on the block.
After being successfully voted into the competition by EFL clubs in October last year, Croydon North-Mount Lilydale Old Collegians, or simply, Croydon North-MLOC, enters 2019 as the great unknown, according to senior coach Mark Holly.
Mount Lilydale Old Collegians finished eighth on the VAFA Division 4 ladder in 2018, recording five wins and 13 losses before merging with Croydon North and joining the EFL.
The club will compete in the EFL’s Division 4 competition in 2019 and will call Hughes Park home, fielding seniors, reserves, women’s and a veterans’ side.
The focus of the pre-season for Holly has been simple – fitness.
“We lost four games last year by under 10 points because we didn’t have the fitness,” Holly said.
“I’ve told (the players) straight out, we’re all an unknown and we really have no idea what we’re going to be like coming up against or what we’re going to be like for the first four or five games trying to mingle with each other.
“We’re just making sure we’re going to be fit, and hopefully that’ll get us across the line in a couple of games.”
A renewed sense of optimism has swept through the club with improved numbers at training this pre-season.
“Without selling us short, we had a pretty average year (last year), we literally had about 10 blokes training every night which is of course nowhere near good enough,” Holly said.
“Now, we’ve got anywhere from 30 to 45 blokes on the track, and everyone’s committing so it’s actually looking pretty good.”
On the playing front, former Croydon junior Tim Legg will continue with the club this season along with former East Ringwood junior, Glenn MacDowell among the key names.
Legg has played for Mount Lilydale Old Collegians for the previous three seasons after switching from Chirnside Park at the end of 2015. He played 17 games for Mount Lilydale OC last season, featuring in the best on nine occasions, while MacDowell played 14 matches.
Meanwhile, 24-year-old Trent Hudson has joined the club after spending the past two seasons with Park Orchards and the subsequent three with Norwood.
As for the coach – who is a life member of the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League, playing 330 games – appearing in the senior ranks is unlikely this season.
“I’ll probably play reserves and help out the vets I think,” Holly said.
“I really want to just commit and concentrate on the coaching this year and to make sure the club is going forward and doing all the right things.”
Setting the tone culturally within the club has been high on the agenda at Hughes Park.
“As long as we’re not cutting corners off-field, we just want to make sure that we’re setting up a very well-structured team and club of course,” Holly said.
“If we can win anywhere from four to eight games, I think that’s a pass for us.
“Our selling point’s been that because we’re a brand-new franchise, that it all comes back to the players – how they want to be looked at and judged from the outside world – it all comes back to them.
“That’s what the players are loving and every time someone turns up, they like to stay because we’re actually putting them in control.
“If there’s something happening at the club that they don’t agree with, they’re the ones making the rules – with guidelines from us – they’re the ones making the club the way they want it.
“We’ve got a ‘no idiot’ policy, and at this stage it’s up to them (the players) if something’s not working and someone’s not doing the right thing, it’s up to them to pull it up as quick as they can and that’s what’s making it so much easier, that they’re taking it on themselves and actually making sure we’re going down the right path.”
Holly will be flanked by assistant coaches Reece Dunne, who joins the club from Norwood, along with Norwood premiership player Glenn Camilleri.
“Their amount of knowledge and professionalism is just outstanding,” Holly said.
The club is an unknown quantity as a result of the merger according to Holly, with up to 25 new faces.
“It’s just a matter of finding out who’s who and how they’re going to produce on the footy field at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Aubrey Jacobs will lead the club’s senior women’s side as coach, as pre-season training began prior to Christmas.
Bringing a wealth of experience having played 283 matches across Kilsyth, Balwyn, Heathmont and North Ringwood, Jacobs also served as the senior women’s assistant coach at Heathmont across 2017 and 2018.
Croydon North-MLOC kicks off its 2019 campaign on Saturday, April 6, when the senior men host Fairpark at Hughes Park, while the senior women’s fixture is yet to be released.