East Ringwood looking to challenge for first Eastern Football League finals berth since 2008
East Ringwood will bid farewell to four of its VFL players this year but remain hopeful of appearing in its first finals series in more than a decade.
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East Ringwood will bid farewell to four of its VFL players this year but remain hopeful of appearing in its first finals series in more than a decade.
Tristan Tweedie (Norwood), Alex Urban (Balwyn), Adam Swierzbiolek (Macleod) and Jack Sandric (Glenroy) have each departed to top-tier clubs after the Roos were demoted from the Eastern Football League top flight for the first time since 1973.
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Jayden Battaglene is also a notable omission after moving to Queensland.
Despite the departures, East Ringwood coach Marcus Buzaglo is hopeful the Roos could challenge for their first finals series since 2008.
“I’ll be honest with you, we haven’t been able to do this for a while, but we’ll be going in this year really working as hard as we can to try and play finals,” Buzaglo said.
“A lot of these guys haven’t played a senior final and the club hasn’t played one for 10 years.
“I’m not going to shy away from that, that’s what we’re going to be aiming to do but when you look at the draw and go through the fixture, it’s really tight.”
Former club captain and best and fairest winner Matthew Sharpe has returned to East Ringwood after a stint at Waverley Blues, while Adam Gibson has also gone back to the Roos after spending the past four seasons at Norwood.
South Croydon premiership player Josh Allison has transferred from the Bulldogs and will add important experience to the midfield brigade.
Forward/wingman Tom Hancock is also returning to East Ringwood after two years at Yarra Valley Old Boys, and there are hopes Liam Malone can develop into a dangerous forward after crossing from Rowville’s under-19s program.
But Buzaglo said the club’s priority in 2019 would be the development of its junior players.
“The best thing about our pre-season so far has been the under-19s,” he said.
“The under-19s kids have just brought a heap of energy so there will be a lot of time spent focusing on them, improving their games and getting them ready to play senior footy.
“Not having an under-19s side the past couple of years, we haven’t had those players coming up so it’s going to make a huge difference.
“Below those guys you’ve obviously got 17s and 15s who are really strong so we’ll be looking to give those guys every opportunity.”
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