EDFL: East Sunbury best-and-fairest Tom Cree moves to Sunbury
Star East Sunbury midfielder Tom Cree will not be at the EDFL Division 2 club in 2020 after opting to switch to a rival competition.
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Star East Sunbury midfielder Tom Cree is on the move.
Cree has decided to cross from the EDFL Division 2 club to Ballarat league outfit Sunbury Lions, where he will join his brother James.
Cree was a runaway winner of the Thunder’s best-and-fairest award this year after finishing second the previous two seasons.
East Sunbury coach Glenn Hopkins said the consistent Cree, who was named in his team’s best three players seven times from 13 games in 2019, had departed on good terms.
“He’s going to test himself at the next level of footy, so good on him,” Hopkins said.
“He’s a good player. We talked at the start of the year about him improving his footy and how he could improve it to go to the next level.
“He won our best-and-fairest quite easily in the end.”
The Thunder have not lost any other key senior players, with ruckman Tom Godsell set to sign when he returns from a trip to the US.
Jack Burnell has returned to East Sunbury after a stint at RDFL club Rupertswood.
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“We wanted to get a few of our juniors back to the club,” Hopkins said.
“Jack’s come back and we’re talking to a few more experienced footy players at the moment as well.”
The Thunder are targeting a key forward and defender after finishing sixth with a 6-8 win-loss record this year.
They came agonisingly close to claiming the ultimate prize in 2018 in a six-point grand final loss to Roxburgh Park.
“Our second half of this season was pretty good when we got a bit of experience in,” Hopkins said.
“We’ve got new social rooms up and going now, a second oval in use, so these sorts of facilities just give us a better feel.
“We wanted to get the whole precinct to be welcoming and that will hopefully help us attract players.”
The club was hurt by the absence of an under-19 team this season, but it is likely to field an under-18.5s side in 2020 after the EDFL changed the age groups of its underage competitions.
“That’s really important for us,” Hopkins said.
“We didn’t have the players to promote (this year) when there were injuries or whatever, so it makes a big difference for us as far as numbers at training and just having that youth around.”
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