By Christopher Kourtis.
The Basin’s senior men’s team prepare for a fresh start in 2025, as the senior women’s team look to further solidify themselves in Premier Division.
Following a winless 2024, The Basin will now turn their attention to their 2025 Division Three campaign.
The side struggled to field a consistent lineup throughout the season, which showed on the ladder.
The club have put their faith into last season’s leading goal kicker, Joel Perry. Operating in a player/coach capacity in 2024, the 332-gamer has now hung up the boots and will take charge exclusively from the sideline for the upcoming season.
Perry says that, despite a winless season, finding the silver lining has fuelled his decision to take on the coaching role full time in 2025.
“To go through the season winless… it was a little disappointing,” said Perry.
“We clearly weren’t good enough but at the same time we showed that we can be and that’s where I kind of was okay to take the role for this year and the next.”
The Basin have looked to recruit in order to solidify themselves in their new division. Among those who will call Batterham Reserve home are 6’7 ruck Connor Applegate, alongside former Basin players Michael Thompson (150 games for the club) and Lachy Burrows (returns after a year off).
Senior Coach Perry is optimistic of how his list is shaping up ahead of the upcoming season.
“I was kind of happy with the talent that we had, and then we targeted a few guys,” said Perry.
“We were just recruiting ex-Basin players to start with… we wanted to get them back because they kind of know what the club is about.”
“Michael Thompson is one of those – he’ll be a really strong asset for us.”
The Bears have their attention focused on Round 1, where they will host Donvale at Batterham Reserve. The fixture will be a great indicator of how The Basin will shape up in Division Three. Coach Perry says that the opening round is important as ever.
“We’re really looking forward to consolidating in Division Three,” said Perry. “We’ll look to work on getting that first win and then really looking to build some momentum into the back half of the year and see what happens”.
Another side looking to cement themselves in their division is The Basin’s senior women’s side.
Their first season in Premier Division produced three wins and a seventh placed finish. Head coach Julia Baker, who took over the side in Round 4 last season as a player/coach, says that the side still has a lot of progress to make.
“To get a few wins on the board in our first season in Premier Division was pleasing,” said Baker. “I thought we were competitive against teams of similar structure and personnel… [but] that we probably lacked the upper level of talent”.
The key to season 2025, says Baker, is getting closer to those teams up the top.
“We can’t beat them yet, but we’ve just got to keep closing the gap.
“That’s the theme for this season – against those upper teams, how are we going to close the gap?”
The Bears have already identified the room for improvement – their forward line. The Basin’s offense ranked seventh in the league in 2024, posting only 302 points.
“Our midfield is really good and our backline is superb,” said Baker. “We’ve got girls like Leah Talbot [and] Lili Gibson that just provide so much run off that half-back line.”
“It’s our forward line that needs the most work”.
The Basin are one of few clubs in the EFNL that boast both a senior women’s side and a development side. The development squad, who play their footy in Division Four, go hand-in-hand with the Premier Division side and have been a great help to coach Baker in getting her side ready for gameday.
“Our culture is really strong.
“We’ve probably got about eight players that come and go between the two teams… we’d probably like to boost that to double figures.
“[The development squad] gives us more girls to develop. It gives us more girls at training… it means that we can do more – your match sim stuff, the full ground drills”.
The Basin’s Premier Division side will open their account against a newly promoted Park Orchards side, who boasted the league’s best defence in Division One last season. The match-up will be key in identifying the effectiveness of the Bears’ new look offense.