Yarra Valley Water InFocus 2025

By Christopher Kourtis.

The Waverley Blues men’s side will look to shake off the demons of successive straight sets exits, whilst the women’s side aim to go one step further and reach Grand Final day in 2025.

The senior men’s side failed to capitalise on a strong home-and-away season once again – they replicated their previous season, finishing second before bowing out in straight sets.

The Waverley Blues have opted for a fresh face in charge ahead of the season. Sam Bates will take over the head coaching role following two years as anassistant coach for Vermont. Supporting Bates as assistant coaches will be Brad Taws (has held assistant coaching roles since 2011) and Sean Young (Wantirna 2010s Team of the Decade player).

Life at Central Reserve is off to a good start, said Bates, who has put in plenty of work with his new side over the off-season.

“It’s been a brilliant start,” Bates said. “We’ve had a really good preseason; it’s been really well attended”.

Bates has wasted no time in making adjustments to the way that the Waverley Blues will play in the upcoming season. At the forefront of the list is the side’s defence, which ranked sixth in the league last season.

“There are a few tinkers to the game style that I will make,” Bates said. “It will be a lot around defence, mainly”.

“We also want to keep our attacking flair… we just need to find a bit of balance”.

Sam Bates will be able to hold a lot of confidence that his side will have the quality to carry out these changes. The Waverley Blues have retained the vast majority of their list, from their young talent to their 2024 EFNL Division Two Team of the Year players.

The club have confirmed some exciting incomings ahead of the 2025 season.

Kyle Viccars returns to the club having spent the last two years with the Port Melbourne VFL side. Viccars will be joined by Sean Young (former Boronia player) and Blake Tahlambouris (former Blackburn and Eastern Ranges player).

Sonny Doherty will also call Central Reserve home, making the jump from Forest Hill in Division Four.

The Waverley Blues are intent on turning their fortunes around in 2025, starting with hosting East Burwood in Round 1.

“The very first time I actually met the group you could actually see there’s a real motivation there to turn [their finals form] around,” Bates said. “All in all, we’ll walk into Round 1 with our best available side and certainly have no excuses”.

Another side looking to make a deeper finals run is the Waverley Blues senior women’s side. Falling one step short of the Grand Final in 2024, the consensus around the league is that the side will be contending once again in 2025.

Clint Martin returns for another season at the helm. Martin understands that last season’s success doesn’t mean that anything is owed to his side in the upcoming season.

“Two years of making finals – we’d like to think we can make finals again in ’25,” Martin said. “I’d like to think we can make Top 4”.

“Our second part of [last] year wasn’t as strong – it’s something we need to work on”.

With Surrey Park promoted last season, the door is open for the Waverley Blues to grab promotion for themselves in 2025. Having only lost once in 2024 (excluding Surrey Park), Martin’s side will boast a very strong line-up going into the new season. Re-committing to another season at Central Reserve are 2024 EFNL Division Two Team of the Year players Abbey Russell, Renee James, Stephanie Peacock and Emma White.

“We’ve kept 99% of the list… which is a fairly tight-knit group,” Martin said.

The Waverley Blues will have their work cut out for them, however. Division Two is shaping up to be one of the tightest competitions in the EFNL, especially with the likes of Montrose and Berwick contending for promotion as well.

“I don’t know how the other teams have recruited. Montrose are a great team, Berwick are a great team – there’s a lot of teams in our division that are good teams. Mooroolbark have come up as well”.

It is against newly promoted Mooroolbark that the Waverley Blues will open their season. Travelling to Mooroolbark Heights Reserve, it is not lost on the Waverley faithful how tough this fixture will be.

“We played Mooroolbark in a practice match last year on their ground. They were quite competitive, and they were still in the lower division,” Martin said.

“They’ve come off a grand final win… they’re going to be hard [to beat] on their ground”.

The season opener will be a terrific indicator of the Waverley Blues’ contender credentials in 2025.