EFL: Hawks in the market for key talls ahead of 2021 season
EFL Division 3 club Glen Waverley has declared it will be actively recruiting in preparation for 2021, and coach Dylan Price explains exactly what his list needs...
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Eastern Division 3 club Glen Waverley will aim to bolster its key position stocks after announcing a recruiting drive ahead of 2021.
The club finished in seventh position out of the eight sides in Division 3 last year, with a 3-15 record.
It recently formed a recruiting subcommittee headed up by re-signed senior coach Dylan Price, and Hawks’ general manager Steve Cook has declared in an open letter to members that the club’s player payment planning for 2021 “does however allow us scope to sign on new players.”
“We want to do more than just survive in Division 3, we want to be super competitive and challenge for the finals – nothing less will be an acceptable outcome,” Cook said.
Price said addressing the Hawks’ spine would be the top priority, after it missed big man Adam Amin in 2019 who headed to England to play cricket, and departing key forward Matt Ferguson who linked up with Outer East club Warburton-Millgrove.
The club welcomed tall Ned Bradley from Kilcunda Bass in the West Gippsland league for 2020, but Price said “one or two more” key position types were needed.
“One of the main things we identified in the season before, we were undersized. We had an injury to our main ruckman which didn’t help and we just didn’t have those key position players so we were asking guys to step up,” Price said.
“Through that spine, we lost a few and had injuries, and that’s probably the main area we’re looking to top up.”
Price said the club was in the process of re-signing its list but expected the majority to return.
“I’ve been reaching out to all our players individually and aside from one player, Dan Eastman, who’s moved back to the country, he’s the only one that I know of so far who would’ve played this year that we haven’t retained,” he said.
“All our leadership group that we had for this year have all recommitted verbally and we’re going through the process of signing.
“I think as a minimum in as strong a position as we were at the start of this year and we’d love one or two extras on top of that.
“I’m really hoping in 2021 we can get that under-19s side up and start to blood a few kids coming through, because I think that’s very important for the club.”
The Division 3 salary cap is set to be $60,000 for 2021, which Price said “wasn’t a big deal” for his club to adjust to, but the existing players would be looked after first.
“The way I see it is we want guys that are motivated to play for the love of the game and for each other, the salary cap is a little bonus there for them,” Price said.
“It’s no big secret that we didn’t have anyone on huge money or get anyone to the club under those pretences. It wasn’t a big headache for us, we didn’t sit down and think we’re going to have to restructure anything.
“I really wanted to make a big push to the club to recognise those guys that had done the pre-season this year and done the work and let’s make sure we look after them first and then see what we’ve still got available.”
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