EFL: Coldstream adds seven new players for the Division 4 2020 season
A flag-winning captain, premiership players, best and fairest recipient and leading goalkicker are among the additions at Coldstream for the EFL Division 4 season.
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Coldstream players will take a pay cut in 2020 to accommodate seven new recruits as part of its tilt at the EFL Division 4 premiership.
The Cougars are set to start as flag favourites next season as they look to erase the memories from their straight-sets departure from this year’s flag race.
Mitcham flag-winning captain Jarrod Witnish is among the additions, alongside premiership teammate Leigh Warne.
The pair played in Mitcham’s 2015 grand final victory and both featured in Phillip Island’s 2018 West Gippsland flag.
Warne also played in the Islanders’ 2019 grand final triumph and Witnish was awarded best afield honours in a representative game for West Gippsland in 2017.
Lachlan Koger has crossed from Lilydale, where he was the club’s leading goalkicker in 2018 with 42 majors.
Surrey Park pair Damien Frisina and Jesse Lehmann have also transferred to Coldstream.
Frisina established himself as one of the best players in Division 4 this year, receiving Team of the Year honours, claiming Surrey Park’s best and fairest and gaining 13 mentions in the best players from 15 games.
Lehmann will boost the ruck division.
Mitchell Shanks (Wandin) and Sheldon Smith (Bayswater) round out the recruiting drive.
Coldstream football manager Daniel Price revealed the club’s players had taken a pay cut to help achieve success.
“Everybody has re-signed and everyone has taken a pay cut to allow this to happen, which has been great,” Price said.
“I would say every player has taken a pay cut, which is obviously the only way we’ve been able to get what we’ve done.”
The salary cap in Division 4 is $70,000, allowing for clubs to spend $4375 per game — the equivalent of $198 per player during the 16-game home and away season.
Price said Coldstream’s group had accommodated its request for players to play for less.
“I put it to them, as in how much they would like to give back,” he said.
“Some people were more accommodating than others, but the boys have been great.
“I think they can understand where we’re at and what we’re trying to do. We don’t pay overs at Coldstream and never have.
“Our better players, like Darcy Carrigan, are paid well unders to what they could be getting elsewhere.”
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Price said the only departures had been the retirements of Dean Cecere and Anthony Faulkner.
Coldstream finished with a 13-3 record in 2019 and will be expected to contend for the premiership after the promotion of grand finalists Fairpark and East Burwood.
“We’re pretty happy with where we’re at at the moment,” Price said.
“We know on our best day, we thought (we were) better than anyone in that division but you’ve always got to recruit, you’ve always got to get better and we think we’ve definitely done that.”
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