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ROWVILLE coach John Brown is set to welcome back a host of names to the senior line-up this season after an injury-riddled 2019 campaign.
The Hawks finished fourth on the Premier Division ladder last season with 12 wins and six losses, before a first-week elimination final exit at the hands of South Croydon.
Among the returning names include joint 2018 club best and fairest winners Jackson McDonald and Matt Traynor, along with Mitch Garner, Matt Little and Jackson Anderson.
“There’s five players that didn’t even play last year through various reasons, and they naturally return to footy,” Brown said.
“The back-end of last season we lost Taine Barlow and Riley D’Arcy – our full forward and full back.
“We start to add a few of these boys back and we keep ourselves fit and healthy, then I have no doubt that we can compete with anyone in the Premier Division.”
The Hawks have further bolstered their engine room, adding former St. Kilda and Sandringham mid/forward Nathan Wright, strong inside midfielder Bailey Lambert who makes the move from Noble Park, the quick-moving Tom Robinson from Upwey (AFL OE), and small forward/midfielder Chayce Black, formerly of Eastern Ranges and Mazenod.
Wright was selected by the Saints with pick 24 in the 2012 AFL national draft where he went on to play 35 matches between 2013-2018, before committing to the club’s VFL outfit on a full-time basis last year. Lambert crosses to the Hawks after three appearances for Richmond’s VFL side across 2018-19 and 29 senior matches for Noble Park, and will be listed with Frankston this year.
Meanwhile Trent Mynott, son of triple Hawks premiership coach and current president Paul, has also aligned with Rowville for 2020 after securing a spot on VFL outfit Box Hill’s list.
The inside midfielder spent the past two seasons on Essendon’s AFL list after being taken with pick 11 in the 2017 rookie draft, and played 36 matches for the Bombers’ VFL side.
“We were looking for a bit of outside class,” Brown said.
“We had the likes of Anthony Brolic last year, Alex Frawley and unfortunately we had a couple of injuries that impacted us through our midfield.
“We were looking for a bit of class on the outside just to add to our midfield mix and so our midfielders can push forward and add to the scoreboard.”
Young guns Lachlan Stapleton, Jonty Duffy, Jamieson Rossiter, Darius Popa and Tyler Edwards also return from NAB League footy, while the key departures include Troy Allen and Mark Seedsman (Doveton), Mason Crozier (Port Melbourne Colts) and Ben Giobbi (Doveton).
Rowville has featured in finals in four of the past five seasons, and Brown says his group is driven by its past two campaigns.
“We’re driven by success and the fact that we have been knocked out two years in a row in an elimination final,” he said.
“We’ve got a list that’s capable and we’ve seen that over the previous two seasons.
“It’s just probably having a little bit of luck with some injuries – we’ve been a bit decimated at the wrong time of the year, two years running. We’re hoping that if we’ve got our list fit and firing at the right time, we’re as capable as anyone.”
Meanwhile, Rowville’s women’s outfit is looking follow its success from 2019, after taking out the South Division premiership.
“The challenge is trying to back it up after our first year but we’ve been big on building on that culture and not being too nostalgic and just hanging our hat on that,” senior women’s coach Sean Alston said.
“We’ve been recruiting pretty hard and we had to make a decision of whether to go for two teams or just consolidate with one.
“We decided pretty early in the piece after speaking to Blackburn and a couple of teams who have been through that and they said look you need 55 players at a minimum to get up two teams.
“We decided let’s just have one and do it properly.”
Alston is bullish about his charges’ flag hopes this season after saluting in the club’s inaugural year.
“We’ve got a really good squad together and they’re pretty hungry, they’re happy that they’re up in Division 1.
“We’re excited and we’re going to go for it. We said ‘Why not? Let’s just go for back to-back’.
“Aim high, because half the teams in Division 1 were in our division last year.”
Rowville begins its season away to South Croydon, while the women’s fixtures are set to be released at a later date.