EDFL 2019: Strathmore still a Premier Division flag contender

A new-look Strathmore will enter the EDFL Premier campaign confident it can compete with the competition’s elite after an off-season of change.

Strathmore and Greenvale lock horns in last season’s Premier Division elimination final. Picture: Jamie Morey

A new-look Strathmore will enter the EDFL Premier campaign confident it can compete with the competition’s elite after an off-season of change.

Four former AFL players — ex-coach Nathan Grima, best and fairest winner Jaryd Cachia, Hamish McIntosh and Nick Lower — have departed.

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Tom Condon, who bagged 40 goals in 2018, and senior regular Daniel O’Leary are also gone, while four-time premiership player Dale May has taken on the top job at West Coburg.

But the Mores had a busy summer, with former VFL player Liam Cavanagh headlining the recruits.

The defender has arrived from Sunshine and was named in the WRFL Division 1 Team of the Year in 2017.

Tom Drake, who made the EDFL Division 1 Team of the Year last season, has crossed from Hillside, along with Joseph Drake and Rusiate Komaitai.

Aberfeldie duo Jack Mighell and David Borg have put pen to paper, along with Jack Condon (PEGS) and Scott Eldridge (East Keilor).

The Mores are also set to land former VFL and WAFL player and ex-junior James Saville, whose clearance request to shift from Doncaster was denied last month.

New Strathmore coach Matthew Horne. Picture: Valeriu Campan

“You always want to be contending at the pointy end, so that’s what we’ll be aiming to do,” first-year coach Matthew Horne said.

“We’ve got a good young group that’s developed once again over the off-season.

“We still think we can compete with the big boys.

“We’re happy with who we’ve brought in. We targeted a specific age demographic and the sort of person we wanted to bring in to the footy club.

“They (departures) all leave significant holes. But we feel, through our young talent and the guys we’ve brought in, that we’ll create good opportunities for people who have put in a good, solid pre-season to fill a void.”

Strathmore held a seemingly unassailable 44-point lead at three-quarter-time of last season’s preliminary final against Keilor. The Blues then booted seven unanswered goals in an extraordinary blitz in the final term to prevail by two points and end the Mores’ campaign.

“We haven’t brought it up greatly,” Horne said.

“It’s something I’m sure drives the players and the coaching group.

“We’ve referenced it, but we’re going to have to look forward and understand that we had 15 guys under 25 and it was a learning curve.

“Hopefully it drives the guys but doesn’t define them.”