GFNL 2024: South Barwon coach Mark Neeld on missing out on recruits and the young players to watch for the Swans
South Barwon has recruited a stack of youngsters over the off-season, but it wasn’t all by design. Coach Mark Neeld reflects on the players they missed out on and the promising talents to watch.
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South Barwon went from missing finals in 2022 to a grand final in the space of a year under coach Mark Neeld, but that barnstorming season wasn’t enough for some potential recruits.
The Swans targeted some experienced heads over the off-season to add to their stockpile of young talent.
However, several options decided to look elsewhere.
“We did speak to a few mature-age players, around 26 or 27, we missed out on them,” Neeld explained.
“They’ve gone to other clubs who had mature-age lists and they get the feeling they are probably closer to a premiership than us and they are entitled to their own opinion.”
The former Melbourne AFL coach holds no hard feelings towards those who passed up the opportunity to join the Swans, but he hinted that they might face some of them during the season.
“If I get a bit bored in the coaches box it certainly gives me a little bit of ammunition to have a chat to the opposition players who were going to come to us but didn’t during the game. All part of the theatre of local community sport, isn’t it?” Neeld said with a laugh.
“If you look at our group on paper it is very young, sometimes people think it is a probably too young to win a premiership. Maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong, we’ll see.”
A squad chock-full of youngsters were the surprise packets of the Geelong Football Netball League last year, winning nine games on the trot before being convincingly beaten by Leopold in the decider.
Their emphasis on young talent will be no different in 2024, with South Barwon adding a quartet of Geelong Falcons and two other previously Coates League-listed players over the off-season.
Neeld said that while partly by design, the influx of more youth is a result of their current list demographic.
“We found that attracting the young ones was a lot easier – they felt comfortable, they speak with the other players. I suppose it was good for us to know that, so that’s the path we went down and they all go to university together and they sort of know what the others do. So that’s quite handy,” Neeld said.
“Again we have certainly erred on the younger side and we are taking it very seriously.
“Part of the role of the coaching group is to ensure when our time’s up when we hand it over to the next people, that there is a solid group of core players who have played together for a little while. That will be one of our aims in the next year or two.”
“We think there can be some natural improvement but everybody knows that development is not linear, there is no guarantee.”
YOUNG GUNS TO WATCH
There is a sense of irony that a player out of the Geelong & District Football League can help fill the void of star goalkicker Andrew Boseley, who crossed to Anakie to play footy with his mates.
That is recruit Callum Hetherington, who bagged 38 goals in 17 games in a breakout season for Bannockburn as a 22-year-old.
His last game for the Tigers was dominant yet inaccurate on the finals stage: four goals, seven behinds, 26 disposals, 14 contested possessions, 11 marks and 163 Premier Data ranking points.
Fortunately the Swans have a couple of handy players in joint Mathieson medallists Fraser Fort and Matt Caldow that can cover Boseley’s departure, but Neeld has been impressed by Hetherington’s first pre-season at the Swans.
“It is going to be interesting as to how we look at that one. We’re miles off thinking about what our best structure is. Is it as simple as we replace Andrew with another key forward – is that Cal Hetherington who has come across from Bannockburn?” Neeld said.
“You’d probably think that Cal early on in the season has got the inside running to that spot. I also think with Callum, watching him train, he is quite an athletic player and I think he’ll spend a bit of time up the ground.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes, having never played Geelong Footy League standard before but he looks to have the attributes that he will come across and transition really well.”
Others who could come into the frame are Rowan Gough, who shone as an intercept defender last year and fellow key back Tom Peirce, a Geelong Falcons graduate who earned selection with Vic Country last season.
“You look at someone like a Rowan Gough and Tom Peirce, very young key defenders. Their best football is certainly in front of them, we’re thinking that early in their careers we have got this thought that maybe they can play in different positions on the ground, just not key back,” Neeld said.
“We’re thinking at times they’ll both go forward, both go back, they’ve both got good tanks. Maybe they can be tall wingers, something like that.”
Originally published as GFNL 2024: South Barwon coach Mark Neeld on missing out on recruits and the young players to watch for the Swans
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