WHILE much attention has centred on the Neagle brothers’ return to Balranald, there’s another familiar face preparing to don the blue and white stripes who will be equally important to the Roos’ premiership dreams.
After three years away plying his trade with Eaglehawk, favourite son Kobe Lloyd returns to his home club with dreams of leading them to their first flag since 2009 – and joining his father Gavin as a premiership Roo in the process.
But while many feel a flag is well within Balranald’s reach this season, that wasn’t the main factor that saw the talented onballer decide to return home.
The pull of family and a desire to play alongside younger brother Drew were the main drawcards.
“My family is really important to me and it was one of the driving factors in me returning home, along with a couple of other reasons, but I just feel the timing is right and it’s a pretty exciting year to be doing it too,” Lloyd said.
“It’ll be really exciting to play alongside him (brother Drew). To see the way he’s gone about his footy has been great to watch and it’ll be even better to see it first-hand this season.
“We’ve played a handful of senior games together when he was really young, back when he was still running around in the helmet and getting a kick in the forward pocket – but he’s obviously grown now and has really developed into a quality footballer.”
Having made the commitment to travel home each weekend from Bendigo, where he is studying and working, Lloyd will find himself as a key member of Balranald’s new look midfield – along with fellow recruits Matthew Neagle and Ethan Gant.
While there has been a significant buzz surrounding the Roos, the 22-year-old is also aware there is plenty of work to be done if they are to fulfil the external expectations this season.
“There’s a fair amount of belief within the playing group, especially with a few recruits such as the Neagle brothers and ‘Ganty’ (Ethan Gant) coming in,” Lloyd said.
“But we’re under no illusions that there are some really good teams that we’ll have to beat such as Kerang and Woorinen too – they’re quality sides and have been the benchmark of the competition for so long and facing quality teams such as them is a challenge that our young group is excited for.
“Although we’ve been improving over the past few seasons and striving towards competing against the best, we still know we have a fair bit of work ahead of us to match it with them – but if we can build on last year then who knows what we could achieve.
“From what I could see last year from the outside, there were some positive signs and now I think we’ve probably got the cattle to go a bit further into the season – how far we can go, I suppose we will wait and see.
“It’s been a long pre-season, but after the way we played in a few of the practice matches there’s a real positive feel around the club and now we’re all just keen to get into it.”
