EFNL 2024: East Ringwood signs Norwood best and fairest Josh Tovey
East Ringwood has signed one of the Eastern league’s most exciting young talents following its heartbreaking Premier Division grand final loss last month.
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The grand final heartbreak lingers – but East Ringwood’s bid to take the next step has begun, signing one of the league’s most exciting young talents.
The Roos fell agonisingly short of the Premier Division flag last month, falling to Balwyn by two points in a cliffhanging decider.
Senior coach Ben Osborne said his club wouldn’t be “overly aggressive” in recruiting this off-season, owing to an investment in youth with the Roos’ under-19s playing off in a grand final, and a swag of key signings made this time last year.
But the club has secured former Eastern Ranges captain Josh Tovey, fresh off a best-and-fairest-winning season at Norwood.
The utility was listed with the Box Hill Hawks this year where he played four VFL matches.
He also made the EFNL Premier Division Team of the Year on the wing, and lit it up in the midfield for the Norsemen in a season where the club won just one match and was relegated.
“He was obviously a pretty sought-after name when Norwood went down,” Osborne said.
“We’ve got some connections with our footy club – he knows Riley Weatherill really well and we’ve got a few Eastern Ranges boys that know him … (and) the Prestons and Toveys are close.
“It happened really fast – he was around the finals and liked what he was seeing from our footy club on and off the ground.
“For a team that got relegated, he was unbelievable. He played midfield for them and wants to play more – he just wants to keep playing the highest level he can.
“We’re a pretty young club and I think that was pretty enticing to him as well.”
Osborne said there was an overwhelming sense of pride among the anguish of the grand final defeat.
The Roos had three teams compete on the big stage in just their second season back in the top-flight, with the reserves taking home the cup.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the club and the whole playing group, to have three sides in a grand final in Premier after just coming up and finding our way through from a middle-range Division 1 side to where we got to,” he said.
“It was gut-wrenching, and you sort of wonder, is it better to lose by six goals or two points?
“Once the dust settles, to give yourself an opportunity to win the grand final and be that close shows the group that we have.
“You’ve just got to be incredibly proud of where we’ve come from and how quick.
“It’s hard to put into words, still talking about it now still brings out some demons but it was an outstanding season from our footy club.
“We’ll learn a lot from it – there’s a lot of blokes really keen to right the wrongs.”
Osborne said the list would remain mostly intact, but club stalwart Chris Cerni and forward-midfielder Mitch Farmer have retired.
“He’s (Cerni) been one of the great East Ringwood clubmen and Farmer went one year longer than he thought – he’d been travelling from Geelong,” he said.
“Other than that, we’ll keep a pretty similar list, and we’ve got a lot of young guys coming through with a lot of talent.”
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