By Kristen Alebakis
FOGARTY is a name synonymous with the Spotswood Football Club, however Michael Fogarty will no longer call the club home after transferring to Doncaster this week.
Despite only playing 10 games with Spotswood in the past two seasons, Fogarty’s influence on the club, both on and off the field will be missed.
He has played more than 200 games for Spotswood as well as having stints with the Western Jets and Williamstown in the VFL.
Fogarty also spent time with Footscray in the VFL over the past two seasons. He was a part of their premiership victory in 2014 and was named vice-captain last year.
Another career highlight was in 2013, when Fogarty earned a spot in the WRFL’s Team of the Year for a standout season.
Spotswood Football manager Tony Walshe says the club would have loved Fogarty to continue on with the club, but said he hopes he can pull on the Spotswood jumper one day in the future.
“He lives on that side of town, so he decided to make the move,” he said.
“His family is very well regarded, his father is in our Team of the Century and was also a president of the club.
“We would love to have Michael back one day.”
Despite losing Fogarty to Doncaster, the club has gained some talent ahead of the 2016 season acquiring the services of Pierce Dawson from Western Australia and young gun Harley Walshe.
Walshe said the club will also welcome back Luke Ryan.
“He is six-foot-one, can play at either end of the ground and is very skilful,” he said.
“He is originally from Spotswood, but has also played with Altona. He was overseas last year.”
Walshe said the club was also thrilled about the youngsters rising through the ranks.
“We are excited about the talent from last year’s premiership,” he said.
“We envisage five or six of them will play senior football with us this year.
“We will also be getting back premiership players Matson Lynch, Dave Sablich and Elliott Wood, who had terrible years with injury last year that we are treating them as new acquisitions.”
Walshe said the club was getting good numbers on the track during pre-season and was expecting Spotswood to have a better season in 2016 in comparison to last year.
Last Modified on 11/02/2016 14:20