Filo steps down from Lake Boga
LAKE Boga will be under new leadership next year after 2023 coach Shawn Filo announced he was stepping down as Magpies coach at the weekend.
Filo cited increased work and travel commitments as the main reasons for ending his four-year tenure as Lake Boga coach in a club statement released on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, due to circumstances, next year Wendy and I will not be returning to the Lake Boga Football Netball Club,” Filo said in the statement.
“My main reason for this is that work has complicated my hours, which would make it difficult to be able to get to training when needed to get there.
“As I work different hours at times, it has always been a balancing act to make it happen, however recently I have a new management structure, which makes it too difficult to change my hours.
“Travelling has been a major challenge and to travel up from Castlemaine and back is an eight-hour round trip.
“I can only say thank you to the club for helping me out for the last few years with placing people like Frosty, Cam and Joel to help me out in a lot of areas, which once again took some pressure off.
“We started the campaign together and although we didn’t get to the top of the mountain from a senior side of things, we almost got there.
“However … I would say the club has gotten to the mountain.”
Filo took over as coach at the end of the 2019 season and endured two years of COVID-19 interruptions before the Magpies broke a 12-year finals drought in 2022.
Lake Boga finished the 2023 home-and-away season fourth on the ladder before losing the preliminary final to Nyah-Nyah West United by 44 points.
Langford back in yellow and black
WOORINEN has begun adding to its playing list for next season, announcing two key recruits last week.
Tom Langford and Matt Perry will don the yellow and black in 2024. Langford is no stranger to the Tigers, having played with the club in 2017, including their 38-point grand final loss to Kerang.
Having spent the past four seasons coaching the Waverley Blues, including a premiership in 2022, Langford will be a welcome addition to Woorinen’s leadership group, where he will also bring his knowledge from several years in the VFL system with both Port Melbourne and Richmond.
Also joining the Tigers from the Waverley Blues is key forward Matt Perry, a former a league-leading goalkicker in the Eastern Football League, as well as being a Team of the Year member.
Perry kicked 72 for the Blues in the past two seasons and will fill a much-needed role as a marking key forward for Woorinen.
Maroons add to list
NULLAWIL has wasted no time in aiming to go one step further in its second season in the North Central Football League, adding former Bendigo Football League players Hunter Lawrence and Nick Keogh to their playing list for next season.
Lawrence joins the Maroons from the Strathfieldsaye Storm, where he spent several seasons playing under new Nullawil coach Darryl Wilson and played in the Storm’s 2019 premiership under current Kerang coach Troy Coates.
Lawrence will be a welcome addition to Nullawil’s midfield rotations, while also playing across half-back.
Keogh is a key-position player who can be used at either end of the ground and has played all his senior football at Kangaroo Flat.
Lawrence and Keogh will join Kerang premiership midfielder Rylee Smith, who announced his return to his junior club last month.
Also returning next season will be Jordan Humphreys, Mitch Farmer, Matt Quigley, Dean Putt, Daniel Watts, Kyle Doran, Zac Kelly, Jonathan Casey, David Isbister, Dean Smith, Zac Caccaviello and Ben Brennan. The club announced their re-signings last week.
