AFL Outer East: Doveton boosts its stocks ahead of the step up to Premier Division
Doveton won’t be resting on its laurels after claiming the Division 1 flag this year. The Doves have been busier than most in the off-season recruiting stakes as they set themselves for Premier.
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The dust has scarcely settled on Doveton’s thrilling AFL Outer-East Division 1 grand final win and the Doves are already knee deep in preparation for their step up to the competition’s top grade.
And setting themselves for that jump, the Doves have undertaken a vigorous recruiting campaign aimed at boosting their depth with the target of matching the competition’s power clubs.
But that planning didn’t start with the final siren at Woori Yallock, director of football Martin Stillman said the club has been readying itself since halfway through the season just finished.
“Initially our priority was to look at retention,” he said. “Midway through the year it was predominantly about ensuring all our current players re-signed.
“Then (coach) Dan (Charles) and I sat down and tried to identify where we might have weaknesses.”
The Doves have had a huge headstart on 2020 with the vast majority of its premiership winning side committing to go around once again.
On the red side of the ledger, veteran Western Bulldog Matthew Boyd has retired after his coaching commitments with Collingwood increased from academy coach to backline and team defence coach with the senior side, while Jake Nicholson has also decided to hang up the boots.
But Charles and Stillman set about penning a shopping list and the Doves have greatly boosted their list ahead of the 2020 challenge.
The Rowville trio of Mark Seedsman, Troy Allen and Luke Hardaway have come on board from the EFL while Jarrod Smith will return to the club after a stint at SFNL’s St Kilda City and Charlie O’Neill is back from Highett.
Austin Deneys, who’s had time with the Oakleigh Chargers and Port Melbourne, has crossed from Forest Hill while Michael Best (Inverleigh in the Geelong and District league) has also signed on.
“We believe we needed to increase our forward potency a bit and we’ve done that with some tall, marking forwards,” Stillman said. “We think we’ve added to our midfield and have got a few more running defenders.”
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Stillman said the busy recruiting work wasn’t just a matter of throwing open the doors and saying ‘who wants to play at a premiership club’.
“There’s a fair bit of planning that goes into it,” he said. “The first thing is to identify the type of player you need then knowing who’s available and who might want to come to the club.”
Stillman said the quality of the top flight field meant clubs needed a deeper list to cover injuries, the key to being competitive would be to go beyond the first 22 players on the list.
“We don’t just want to make up the numbers,” he said. “That’s why we’ve been so aggressive with our recruiting.”
The club is also putting plenty of elbow grease into boosting its under-18 stocks with a number of young players joining the club.
“Hopefully in a year’s time we won’t have to recruit eight senior players (they’ll come from within),” Stillman said.
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