FOOTBALL
AFTER its lowest finish to a season for two decades, Eaglehawk has set itself to be one of the big improvers in the Bendigo Football-Netball League this year.
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The Hawks are coming off a 9-9 record and seventh position last season, but will certainly bat much deeper this year in their quest to return among the top echelon of teams in the competition.
Headlining the arrivals at Canterbury Park is the biggest name to be joining the BFNL this year in former St Kilda captain Jarryn Geary.
Geary is an Eaglehawk junior and headed home after his 207-game AFL career at the Saints came to a close last year.
The 34-year-old will also be an assistant coach to Travis Matheson, who returns for a fifth season at the helm of the Hawks.
"Jarryn will be at the footy every week and it will be a matter of just seeing how his body holds up from week to week," Matheson said.
"It will be one of those situations that we manage each week in terms of how he is feeling, which is no different to anyone else that age, but he wants to play as much footy as he can."
It will be one of those situations that we manage each week in terms of how he is feeling, which is no different to anyone else that age, but he wants to play as much footy as he can
- Travis Matheson on Jarryn Geary
Joining Geary at the Hawks is his brother Kallen - the three-time Strathfieldsaye premiership star who has also headed back home.
In the middle the Hawks will unleash a new ruckman in Connor Dalgleish, who has played more than 100 games with Montmorency and had stints in the VFL with Coburg and the former under-18 NAB League with the Northern Knights.
Former Golden Square duo Jack Daley (mid/forward) and Jacob Greenwood (forward) are both returning to the BFNL to play with the Hawks after playing at Calivil United last year, while the Hawks have also added fellow former Bulldog Dylan Hird, who after enduring a shoulder injury last year returned late in the season and kicked five goals and was best on ground in Square's reserves grand final win.
"Dylan has been really impressive in the pre-season. He hasn't missed a session, is moving really well and has done a lot of kilometres," Matheson said.
After being one of the stars of Lockington-Bamawm United's HDFNL premiership last season, midfielder Marcus Angove is making the step-up into the BFNL and Moama's Billy Barnes (midfielder) is also among the additions to the Hawks.
"There's a good feeling around the place heading into the season," Matheson said.
"We feel that we have a lot more depth on our list this year and a lot more cover, which will be a big help.
"As a whole we've had a really good pre-season... we've got Billy Evans living back here and seen a lot more of him and he's taken his fitness to another level.
"Ben Thompson continues to come along really well, which is really exciting, we've seen Charlie Langford mature again with another pre-season under his belt and we'll play him down back this year, which we think will suit him.
"With more senior numbers this year we're going to have more competition for spots and I think you will find guys saying they have done more over the past few months in pre-season than they have done previously.
"The fact that we bat deeper this year means that when we have those weeks where we could have players out that we're not having to reinvent the wheel... if we lose a half-back for example we'll be able to bring a half-back in as opposed to having to flip players around to try to make it work.
"And with that depth comes the chance to spread the load better."
From last year the Hawks have lost former Sydney Swans rookie Brady Rowles (Melton), VFL-listed Zane Carter (Chelsea), Kobe Lloyd (Balranald), skipper Shaun Knott (Westmeadows) and Sean Williams (Rochester).
PREMIER DATA 2023 STATS LEADERS
DISPOSALS
Billy Evans 462
Noah Wheeler 402
Ben Thompson 402
Dillon Williams 361
Brady Rowles 314
Joel Mullen 274
Kobe Lloyd 274
Samuel Thompson 268
Liam Marciano 262
Lewin Davis 256
MARKS
Ben Thompson 120
Brady Rowles 101
Dillon Williams 92
Liam Marciano 76
Noah Wheeler 75
Billy Evans 72
Joel Mullen 72
Jack Thompson 72
Lewin Davis 69
Samuel Thompson 64
CLEARANCES
Billy Evans 110
Noah Wheeler 78
Dillon Williams 65
Ben Thompson 58
Joel Mullen 34
Lewin Davis 28
Clayton Holmes 27
Liam Marciano 26
Brady Rowles 25
Jack Lawton 24
TACKLES
Dillon Williams 107
Noah Wheeler 91
Billy Evans 80
Joel Mullen 78
Ben Thompson 64
Brady Rowles 50
Liam Marciano 44
Jack Lawton 42
Lewin Davis 38
Fraser Verhey 37
GOALS
Liam Marciano 25
Darcy Richards 21
Lewin Davis 19
Sean Williams 17
Ben Thompson 15
Noah Wheeler 13
Shaun Knott 10
Dillon Williams 10
Samuel Thompson 9
Cameron McGlashan 9
NETBALL
Last year: Eighth (4-14).
Coach: Kylie Piercy.
2022 best and fairest: Morgan Keating.
Player gains: Amy Ryan, Gabe Marlow, Tiarni Baxter, Kayla Cox, Darcey Lloyd, Laura Herbert.
Player losses: Arriah Keogh.
Last A-grade premiership: 2012.
EAGLEHAWK will enter the 2023 BFNL season looking to close the gap on its rivals above following an eighth-placed finish last year.
The Hawks' four wins last season came against three teams - Golden Square twice, Kyneton and Strathfieldsaye.
They also came within one goal of defeating Maryborough in round 14.
If recent trends continue, the Hawks will need to conjure up somewhere between four and seven more wins if they are to realise their goal of a return to finals action.
South Bendigo, which finished fifth in the last two completed seasons in 2022 and 2019, won 11 and seven games in each of those years, albeit with Castlemaine not fielding a team in 2019, each team played only 16 games.
Eaglehawk will have a new coach at the helm with Hawks stalwart Kylie Piercy taking over the reins from last year's tandem of Elley Lawton and Eleisha Saunders.
Saunders has remained as the assistant coach, while Lawton will focus on playing.
Piercy has left no stone unturned in rejuvenating the playing list, bringing in LVFNL midcourters Amy Ryan (Calivil United), Gabe Marlow (Mitiamo) and Tiarni Baxter, a premiership player with Maiden Gully YCW last year.
The Hawks have regained promising former junior Kayla Cox after a few seasons away from netball, and added the experienced Laura Herbert and former Sandhurst 17-and-under premiership player Darcey Lloyd.
They will join the core of last year's team, led by gun goaler Gracie Berryman, best and fairest winner Morgan Keating, Rani Madden, Jasmin Gallagher, goal shooter Kate Clow and Lawton.
Midcourter Arriah Keogh (Maiden Gully YCW) and Charlotte Edlin (ACL) are the notable losses from last season.
Competition for spots has been strong, with Piercy still yet to settle on her A and A-reserve line-ups, instead rolling with an A-squad.
That squad includes one of last year's 17-and-under standouts Poppy McPherson and Gemma Bull, who has stepped up from B-grade.
Piercy, who led Mitiamo to a flag in 2019 in her most recent A-grade coaching role, can sense her squad is starting to gel.
"We still have some girls coming back from injuries that have had a bit of a stop start pre-season, but it's still been a very upbeat vibe around all the girls," she said.
"We've had practice matches against Kerang, North Bendigo and Elmore and have had various girls out at different times due to unavailability and injuries, but the girls have really enjoyed getting back out on the court and having decent hit outs.
"It's also given us the opportunity to take a look at different combinations.
"We are keeping our eye on a few girls in B-grade as well as 17's at this stage."
Piercy is certain on where she would like her team to be at the end of round 18.
"Our expectations this season are to win enough games and push for finals," she said.
"The games we aren't able to win (in the first half of the season), we will hope to reduce the margins, if not win, in the second half of the season."
Piercy believed the inclusion of last year's coach Lawton following an injury-interrupted 2023 - 'when she is cleared to play' - would give a predominantly young Hawks a lift in experience and drive.
An A-grade premiership player at Canterbury Park in 1992, a multiple-premiership coach in Eaglehawk's lower grades and a club life member, Piercy is anticipating a tough season opener against South Bendigo, with the Hawks set to be missing a few players through injury.
BFNL SEASON PREVIEWS
HDFNL SEASON PREVIEWS
LVFNL SEASON PREVIEWS
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