With a new coach and a new major sponsor, there’s excitement in the air at the St Kilda Sharks.
Former Melbourne player and Cranbourne coach Shaun Smith was officially announced as the new Sharks coach for 2016 in November.
Smith, who played 109 VFL/AFL games between 1987 and 1998, made special mention of the strong leadership at the Sharks, referencing the on field leadership of 2015 captains Phoebe McWilliams and Sarah Chapman and the off field structure provided by president Keryn Ralph.
St Kilda has made the finals two years in a row without claiming a win – the aim for 2016 is to take the next step enroute to winning a premiership.
“It’s nice to have fresh eyes on the current playing list,” McWilliams said, who played in the AFL Exhibition match for the Western Bulldogs last season and in March.
“We were training three nights a week in the lead up to Christmas, which is a pretty heavy workload, and the improvement over the last two months has been good.”
The Sharks boast four players who played in the AFL Exhibition matches last season ( McWiliams and Moana Hope both Western Bulldogs plus Jenna Bruton and old Brittany Bonnici both Melbourne), however Ralph has been quick to laud the potential of new recruit Meg Downie.
“Meg played a couple of games last year but she’ll be playing a full season this year. She’s a former state player so she’s looking pretty fit at the moment,” Ralph said.
“Also Alex Whitehead, she played two years ago with us and was a standout in our Reserves’ Grand Final. She’s got a great fitness base and a really good head on her shoulders and I think she’ll really step up into a senior role this year.”
The major development of securing the sponsorship of Jayco, Australia’s biggest caravan and trailer business, for the 2016 season has been a huge coup for the Sharks. Annette Arzoumanian, St Kilda’s 2015 Division 1 coach and the assistant coach of their VFL Women’s side this season, commented on the apt timing of securing such a big name sponsor with women’s football on the rise.
“In terms of wanting to move forward in professionalism, it’s a pretty big deal for us to get a well-known deal out there but particularly for Gerry [Ryan, Head of Marketing at Jayco] who was the guy that basically agreed to it,” Arzoumanian said.
“He’s a St Kilda supporter, so that’s how we positioned it.
“Jayco are competing on the global market so we saw that natural alignment to be there. Certainly we think it’s a fantastic alignment: we’re making sure we’re pushing the brand to our stakeholders and similarly their financial support enables us to do things that previously we couldn’t do.”
St Kilda will face Eastern Devils in Round 1 away from home.
By Callum O'Connor
WEBSITE: www.stkildasharks.com
FACEBOOK: /StKildaSharks
TWITTER: @stkwfc