AFTER coming agonisingly close last season, Robinvale Euston is certain that a playing group with the same core can win the Sunraysia football premiership next season.
Re-signing imports Isaac Corvo, Jack Taylor and McLeod medal winner Benji Neal, the club has so far gained the signatures of 12 players from last season’s grand final team that lost to Irymple.
The Eagles have also added a good friend of Neal’s, Charlie Ford, who will make his way to John James Oval after a stint with Finley in the Murray Football League.
Ford was expected to add even more depth to an already strong Eagles midfield.
However, unlike the other imports, he will relocate to the area, having secured a job as a school teacher in NSW.
Robinvale Euston coach Craig Davison said he expected Ford to move within the next month, which meant he would take part in pre-season training.
“We’re excited to have Charlie come to the club, he will add little bit of run and outside class,” Davison said.
“We’ve got a lot of ball hunters in our midfield so we identified that we might need some players on the outside a little bit, but in saying that he can still find his own footy too.”
Although Davison had been told by numerous people that speed was an issue in the grand final, he didn’t see it as a weakness.
“So many people have said to me, jeez you looked slow in the grand final, but for 16 out of 18 games it was never brought up,” he said.
“When you’re second to the footy and not winning the ball at the source, you look slow, so it’s not a glaringly dramatic thing for us, a bunch of our guys have decent leg speed.
“Joey Mezzatesta, James Zappia, Zach Leslie, Joey Madio, Raf Bulzomi, have decent leg speed, it’s just that we weren’t winning the footy.”
While Davison said another outside player was on the club’s radar, he also expected more players to re-sign, stalled by the absence of president Phil Lamattina who was currently away.
“Obviously our system worked for the most part … if everyone’s willing to do the work and we rejig our structure a little but, I’m pretty confident in the group we’ve got,” he said.
