Old Ignatians backs squad development and Kristian Roocke signing after departure of star player Ortlepp

An Adelaide Footy League premiership side with a new ex-SANFL recruit remains confident it can make some noise in 2022 despite losing its star player.

A 2021 Adelaide Footy League premiership side remains confident about a ‘challenging’ 2022 despite recently losing its top goal-kicker and star player.

Not long after signing former Norwood and PNU midfielder Kristian Roocke amid an off-season of recruitment struggles, Old Ignatians have lost key forward Cam Ortlepp to country football ahead of the club’s first ever division one season.

Ortlepp is off to North Gambier in the Western Border Football League after playing a huge role in the club’s maiden division two premiership last season, and booted five goals in a best on ground grand final performance against Glenunga.

Coach Damian Boots was surprised by Ortlepp’s departure and said it would leave a big hole.

Cameron Ortlepp celebrates after a goal in his best on ground 2021 grand final performance. He has now signed with North Gambier. Picture: Dean Martin

“We had originally struggled with recruitment but were boosted by the fact we hadn’t lost anyone before Cam leaving,” Boots said.

“It’s disappointing to lose such a quality player who has been at the club for such a long time but his work and professional life is important.

“We’re sad to see him go and we’ll miss him, he’s been great for our club. It leaves a hole and we’ve got to find those goals now so we’ll continue to look for players to step up to his role at the club to hopefully fill that gap.”

Despite the loss of Ortlepp, Boots remained confident as the club began pre-season.

He said the continued development of what was a young side from last season with the new addition of experienced star Roocke had Old Iggies in a strong position.

Kristian Roocke in action for Payneham Norwood Union against Tea Tree Gully in June. He has signed with Old Ignatians for season 2022. Picture: Brayden Goldspink

“I don’t shy away from the fact that we have developed our guys into strong players and I think we can build on it even further. We have a lot of upside,” Boots said.

“We also wanted guys with division one experience to boost us in what will be a challenging 2022 and Kristian Roocke gives us that. He’s an old scholar and it’s fantastic that he’s coming back to our club.

“We’re also set to add some other young guys who’ve come through the school and been in an SANFL program. I feel like our group is really in a strong spot to be competitive next year if we can account for Cam’s absence.”

With pre-season now underway for Old Ignatians, the club has backed its tried and tested fitness program in for another year.

Old Ignatians coach Damian Boots is confident his division two premiership team can perform up to a division one standard next season. Picture: Matt Loxton

Boots said the squad was focused on the fundamentals.

“We’ve had a solid pre-season program for a few years now and have always prided ourselves on our fitness so we’re really happy there,” he said.

“We might tweak a few things from a game plan perspective because we need to be better at our fundamentals at this level because if we can’t get those right against teams like PAC we’ll be punished.

“If we can continue to work hard and gel some of the younger players into our program I think we can be competitive and stay in division one, which right now is the main objective.”