vfl.com.au recently chatted to Williamstown senior coach Andy Collins about what could lie in store for the club on the field in 2017.
FACT FILE:
2016 FINISH: 4th (14-7)
2016 BEST AND FAIREST: 1. Willie Wheeler / 2. Michael Gibbons / 3. Sam Dunell
2016 TEAM OF THE YEAR: Sam Dunell / Michael Gibbons / Ben Jolley / Nick Meese / Willie Wheeler
FORMER PLAYERS CURRENTLY ON AFL LISTS:
- Selected from club in 2008: Liam Picken* (Western Bulldogs)
- 2012: Jack Frost* (Collingwood/Brisbane)
- 2014: Kane Lambert* (Richmond)
- 2015: Andrew Gallucci* (Carlton)
KEY 2017 INS & OUTS:
- In: Lachlan Bramble (Calder Cannons) / Ben Cavarra (Frankston) / Fletcher Carroll (Murray Bushrangers) / Nick Giarrizzo (Western Jets) / Luke Goetz (Western Bulldogs AFL) / Jackson Gray (Sandgate, QLD) / Kyle Gray (Frankston) / Daylan Kempster (Frankston) / Jacob Magee (Lara) / Adam Marcon (Richmond AFL) / Josh Newman (Frankston) / Max Philpot (Western Jets) / Josh Pickess (Frankston) / Jason Pongracic (Frankston) / Brodie Romensky (Western Jets) / Joel Tippett (North Melbourne AFL) / Corey Yeo (Claremont, WA) / Tom Wilkinson (Sandringham Dragons)
- Out (selected): Anthony Anastasio (Port Melbourne) / Alex Carr (Essendon VFL) / Dylan Conway (Port Melbourne) / Tyler Curtis (Coburg) / Ashley Di Ciero (Gormandale) / Liam Griffiths / Caleb Hislop / Jack Johnstone / Cameron Lockwood / Caleb Sullivan
DEPARTED PLAYERS WHO’LL BE MISSED:
Experienced leaders: “We’ve lost Cam Lockwood’s leadership on and off the field. Unfortunately we didn’t see the best of him in 2016 because of injuries, and similar with Jack Johnstone due to his studies. Jack’s finished his study now and has gone back home to live in Maffra. He was a terrific player and is still only a young fella. Both of them were 2015 premiership players and will really be missed.”
Dangerous goalkickers: “We’ll miss the goalkicking ability of Anthony Anastasio and Dylan Conway, who are premiership players from 2015. Both have found their way to Port Melbourne for hopefully more opportunities to play regular senior football.”
Emerging on-ballers: “We lost a couple of really good emerging midfielders in Caleb Hislop and Alex Carr – again seeking more opportunity to play football at different clubs – as well as our young ruckman Tyler Curtis who went to Coburg. We’re a really competitive squad here and I understand that young boys need to chase their dreams and play more senior footy.”
RECRUITS WHO COULD MAKE AN IMPACT:
Big-bodied midfielders: “We really missed (2015 Seagulls premiership player) Adam Marcon’s presence around our group while he was on Richmond’s rookie list last year. He’s going to be a playing assistant midfield coach and also a vice-captain, so that’s the regard we hold him in. He was a best-and-fairest winner with Richmond’s VFL team last year and we think he’ll add a lot on and off the field. We probably got beaten by teams with big inside midfielders last year, so we also recruited the likes of Jason Pongracic and Corey Yeo. Jason was Frankston’s captain last year and Corey – the brother of (West Coast’s) Elliot Yeo – was runner-up in Claremont’s WAFL best-and-fairest in 2015 before he unfortunately did his ACL.”
Joel Tippett: “We haven’t had a really tall defender for a while and David Fahey and Peter Faulks have always had to fight above their weight divisions. Joel is a 197cm key defender who I’ve coached previously at West Adelaide in the SANFL and we think he’ll play a very significant role against some of the bigger forwards in the competition to really support Davey and Pete.”
Former Frankston defenders: “We’ve recruited emerging key defenders in Daylan Kempster and Kyle Gray from Frankston who are in that next age group. David Fahey, Peter Faulks and Joel Tippett are all aged 27 and above, where Daylan and Kyle are 21 and 20 respectively. We wanted to replace Jack Johnstone with a like-for-like defender and we were also lucky to pick up Josh Newman, Frankston’s best-and-fairest winner last year.”
Former Frankston ball-winners: “Ben Cavarra is one of the elite players in the competition with his ability to go midfield and forward. There’s always a concern that AFL recruiters just don’t like some players and I think some recruiters need to go to recruiting school, because I’m really fortunate to have Ben this year. I think Josh Pickess will add something in the back half of the season too, as he’s had major ankle surgery in the off-season and is probably still six to 10 weeks away from returning to footy. He’s a really professional kid and I rated him right alongside the likes of Ben Cavarra and Michael Gibbons when I first watched him in 2015.”
BEST-AND-FAIREST CONTENDERS:
“There’s too many to answer that! As a coach, you want them all around the top of the leaderboard. They’re being led by Ben Jolley again (in his sixth season as captain) and we’re really fortunate to have a really good playing list.”
BREAK-OUT CANDIDATES:
Michael Gibbons (if it’s possible for a J.J. Liston Trophy winner to break out): “Believe it or not, Michael has gone up a level again in regards to his conditioning. He’s probably second in line for us behind Sam Dunell in terms of his physical conditioning.”
Brett Bewley: “Brett just continues to put on size and become more explosive. We think he’s matured physically and we think he’ll have a really good season.”
Mitch Norton: “Mitch was one of the elite players of the TAC Cup for the Western Jets a couple of years ago before shoulder injuries struck him down (two senior VFL games in 2016). He’s had an enormous pre-season and we think he’ll be ready this year.”
Billy Myers: “Billy’s another former Western Jets player who played in the 2015 VFL Grand Final as the 23rd player before he suffered injuries last year (10 senior VFL games in 2016). He’s just completed a terrific pre-season so he’s holding down a spot in the back line at the moment.”
Tristan Davies: “Late last year Tristan burst onto the scene with three goals in two senior games, including the qualifying final (a loss to Collingwood).”
BIGGEST TEAM STRENGTHS:
“We think our midfield will still be very strong, with Nick Meese (pictured) in charge. He’s really excited about the change to the third-man-up rule. He’s sick of blokes jumping over him in ruck contests so he’ll enjoy the new rule and we think we’ll get the fruits of Nick’s labour.
“We think we’ll be pretty strong across all lines though. We think we’re a pretty balanced team and we play a pretty good game of footy.”
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT ON 2016:
“We probably lacked a bit of versatility in the midfield last year. Towards the end of the season we got beaten by bigger bodies in there. (Melbourne’s) Clayton Oliver was really good for Casey in our preliminary-final loss as was Koby Stevens when we played Footscray, but we feel we’re better equipped in the midfield this year.
“The way we delivered our footy inside 50 was an area that needed attention too, and even the way we were exiting the ball out of our defensive 50. A lot of our game went under analysis over the off-season and we’re hoping we’ve got a more productive game and a more consistent game going forward.”
COACHING PANEL CHANGES:
“We’ve shuffled the panel around a little bit. Robbie Campbell will play a specific second-in-charge role with a focus on offence and the ball movement of our team. We’ve also been able to recruit some great coaches in Michael Osborne – a former Carlton assistant coach and Hawthorn 2008 premiership player – who joins his great mate Robbie, and Matthew Pearce, who comes back as a 2003 Williamstown reserves premiership player. He’ll be the midfield coach, while Michael will be the forwards coach. We keep Clay Illman as our defensive coach who did a great job last year, and we’ve got Frankie Raso coming on board – a former Collingwood player and former Preston and Northern Blues captain – as our development coach. He’s a really good coach with a big, big future, particularly in the area of player development.”
Next preview: Collingwood
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Last Modified on 07/04/2017 14:05