Chandler Medal winner Cameron Manuel and former top-10 draft pick Daniel Gorringe sign at Balwyn
BALWYN has landed the first big recruiting moves of the Eastern Football League off-season, signing a Chandler medallist and former top-10 draft pick.
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BALWYN has landed the first big recruiting moves of the Eastern Football League off-season, signing Chandler medallist Cameron Manuel and former top-10 draft pick Daniel Gorringe.
Team of the Year forward Charlie Haley has also signed at the Tigers after booting 35 goals with North Ringwood this year.
West Australian Manuel joins Balwyn after two years at Rowville, where he won the 2015 EFL Division 1 best and fairest.
Ruckman/forward Gorringe was taken with pick 10 in the 2010 draft and played 26 games with Gold Coast and Carlton before being delisted by the Blues in August.
“Our team has been together for a long time, so it needs a bit of rejigging,” Balwyn football director Paul Johnson said.
“There is a lot of work going on in the recruitment side.”
Glenorchy product Liam Smith, who played 19 games in the Tasmanian State League this year, has also moved across Bass Straight to join the club.
“Very keen to try advance his footy so he’s coming over to try and play well and get looked at,” Johnson said.
Smith is the cousin of three-time Balwyn premiership player Jason Taylor, who played 91 VFL/AFL games for Fitzroy, Hawthorn and Collingwood.
Young forward Sam De Soya is also returning to the Tigers after a stint at Port Melbourne.
However, brothers Jonathan and Tom Simpkin have returned to junior club Colac in the Geelong league.
Veteran ruckman John Meesen has gone back to Bellarine outfit Modewarre as the Warriors’ co-coach, while Daniel Hughes and Renwick Watts have retired.
“We’ve lost a few big points in Jonathan and Tom, so that gives us ammunition to go out and recruit,” Johnson said.
“I think we averaged just over 40 in our games last year, which you really should be getting up towards the max, so we’ll look at that and try use our full loading of points.”
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