Whittlesea’s senior football team hopes a new coach and new game style will help end a cycle of promotion and relegation that has seen it bounce between Northern Football Netball League’s first and second divisions for more than a decade.
The Eagles have been promoted to the league’s top-flight competition four times since 2010, but have never lasted more than three full seasons before being relegated back to second division with a last-place finish.
In every instance the club has bounced back the following season to win the division two premiership – and with it, promotion to division one – but president Adrian ‘AJ’ Stewart believes long-term stability at the top level is crucial.
To that end, the Eagles have hired new senior coach Wayne Van Der Ross after a turbulent 2022 that saw them sack long-time coach Blair Harvey mid-season.
Stewart said Van Der Ross had brought a fresh perspective to the club and the players were enthusiastically embracing a new game style.
“[Wayne] has been working hard to implement the new game style and strategy and adapt it for what our playing group is,” Stewart said.
“I think the gap in division two is bigger from the bottom team to the top team, so you can play a really attacking brand of football. But when you come up to division one, once you turn it over it goes back the other way quite fast.
“You have to have a defensive mindset as well as an attacking one, and I think that’s what we’re building with our game plan.
“Every team is good enough to get a run on at some stage, so when the opposition gets a run on, it’s about how well you can manage it and how well you can capitalise when it’s your turn.
“Last year we had a change of coaching and a few issues we had to work out internally, but in the first half of the year Montmorency beat us by about 22 goals, and then when we made the changes we did, the second time we played them we were up in the last quarter and only lost by about four goals.”
In addition to a new game style, Whittlesea will also sport a new on-field look in 2023 with the additions of ruckman Thomas Flood, from the Victorian Amateur Football Association’s Manningham Cobras, and Aleksandr D’Arro, from the Northern Knights, along with the return of past premiership players Matt Dornauf and Laurence Umali.

The recruits will help bolster a playing list that has lost brothers Jake and Mitch Wild, Blake Fitzgerald and Tom Indian – all to Hurstbridge – while defender Brody Bell will depart for North Heidelberg.
In a good sign for the Eagles however, emerging ruckman Sam Indian has remained with the club after initially seeking a clearance to Macedon in the Riddell district league.
With Flood and Indian set to ruck to a midfield that still includes the likes of Taidgh Bland and captain Xavier Dimasi, Stewart said there was plenty of cause for optimism.
Whittlesea will also field at least three netball sides, a women’s football team and an over-35 supers team, which won last season’s Victorian Metropolitan Superules Football League division four grand final.
Stewart said it was all part of what made the club an important part of the community.
“We’re pretty big on the mental health side of things for people in our club, and the supers are a big part of that,” he said.
“It’s a good way to keep people involved at the club, and most of them have children who then play with us.”
Stewart said Whittlesea was still searching for players to fill out its under 19 side. Anyone interested in playing can contact the club by emailing whittleseafc@bigpond.com, visiting whittleseafc.com.au or searching for the team’s Facebook page.
CONTINUE READING THE 2023 LOCAL FOOTBALL & NETBALL SEASON PREVIEW