Whittlesea’s senior men will play in the Northern Football Netball League’s, NFNL, division two after being relegated from division one, returning with a new coach at the helm as Garry Ramsey takes the reigns.
“It’s fantastic. I’m very excited and I can’t wait for the season to start,” Ramsey said.
“I think I had my first year off last year in about 16 years. I worked out I’d rather be stressed being busy than not busy enough.
“I’m super excited. We’ve been up and about for the practice matches and I’m really excited for round one more than anything.”
Whittlesea retained most of its list with new recruits as ex-Eagles return to the nest.
“Preseason has been going very good. We’ve been doing a lot of game style kicking and skills training,” Ramsey said.
“Nearly all of the running has been with the balls so there’s been a heavy focus on our skill level while we’ve been improving our fitness.”
Rebuilding the under 19s and bringing back former players to strengthen the community has been a focus.
“In the last couple of years, the club’s lost a few players so we’ve tried to focus on getting all Whittlesea people back. That’s been the number one focus,” Ramsey said.
“Just building the club back up with Whittlesea people and making it a sustainable success.
“On a Thursday night you’ve got the Whittlesea women footballers and all the netball sides and it’s a great community feel at the club, and I’m really enjoying the experience of that.
“It seems like it’s a club for everybody and it’s got a really good community feel about it. Hopefully it’s a place where all the local people can go and catch up with each other on a Saturday.”
The Eagles kick off their division two campaign with a home game against Laurimar on April 6.
The senior women also have a new head coach with Aimee McDougall bringing 10 years of experience including with VFL teams.
“I think the knowledge that I’ve got across 10 years is really going to help out the team and I’m just looking forward to having my own team,” she said.
Whittlesea recruited seven players from Laurimar, one from Diamond Creek, and one from Hurstbridge alongside three fresh players who have joined the side.
McDougall said Whittlesea were in form during preseason.
“We’re getting really good numbers at training and I’m trying to put in some different strategies that haven’t really been run at Whittlesea before so it’s looking really good this year,” she said.
“We’ve managed to pick up a lot of midfield players and add onto the midfielders that were already there along with a couple of strong backline players like Ash Fitzpatrick who played in the Knights last year.
“We’ve just got a lot of stronger bodies and more game experience as well with players that have been playing a few more years.
“We’re really looking at tackling the season ahead, using some more resources as well like getting games videoed and game day reviews.”
Off the field McDougall said she was looking forward the Ladies Day and the inclusion of the women’s side and the netballers during the event and supporting leadership development opportunities.
“I’ve already spoken to the club about asking the league to have the Ladies Day event on the Saturday with the men’s team then having all the female teams one after the other at the Showgrounds,” she said.
“I also like to run a leadership program. I ran it at Diamond Creek last year and it’s just to help out the leaders and some girls that are looking at leadership roles for next year or even at work.
“I’m really looking forward to growing that from what I did last year and putting it forward to the girls at Whittlesea this year.”
The Eagles will play Greensborough in the NFNL division two opener on Sunday, April 14.
