Outer East: Narre Warren coach Shane Dwyer is adamant the hunger still burns

Narre Warren premiership coach Shane Dwyer is confident his side won’t struggle with complacency this year while two players will bolster the Magpies’ premiership defence.

Narre Warren coach Shane Dwyer addresses his players. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Narre Warren premiership coach Shane Dwyer is beyond doubt that if being a part of history isn’t going to inspire his side this season, then nothing will.

After capping off a superb 2022 home-and-away run by defeating Woori Yallock in the Outer East grand final, the Magpies have stabilised their list and will go into 2023 raging hot favourites once again.

While success has been synonymous with the Pies for the best part of 20 years, Dwyer is optimistic his group remains hungry.

“We are probably lucky in a way that a lot of the guys won their first premiership, so they’ve got a bit of a taste,” he said.

“There’s guys that have played in multiple, but a lot of guys won their first, so they’ve got the taste of it, the amount of enjoyment you get out it, so we were hoping that keeps them going and it looks like it has.

“If that’s not enough to drive them, I don’t know what is.”

Reigning league medallist Jake Richardson will front up for the Pies again. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Despite losing just one game and having an imperious average winning margin of 98 points last year, Dwyer is under no illusions of grandeur and understands his side needs to evolve.

“We are well aware that we need to be better, that’s the message we are sending, you can’t be complacent or anything because we want to keep winning flags,” he said.

“We just have to make sure we keep that same enjoyable environment for them to get down there (to training).

“We try to keep it a little bit less serious at times, if you get too robotic then blokes will drop off and the care factor drops off a bit.

“It will be the same as all years I have coached, we will make it player driven, the players will take a fair bit of the whack at training at times.

“Last year they were really good, they always turned up and barring probably Woori Yallock – which probably was a blessing in disguise in the end – they were fantastic.”

The Magpies have welcomed back Ryan Quirk to the club from Bunyip while half-forward Brad Scalzo is set to return from a knee injury.

Narre Warren will host Pakenham in a stand-alone fixture on April 15.