Local footy: Lance Whitnall re-signs at EDFL club Craigieburn for 2021
Will former AFL forward Lance Whitnall be coaching in the EDFL next season? The premiership mentor led Craigieburn to its third senior flag in 2019.
Local Footy
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Premiership coach Lance Whitnall has re-committed to Craigieburn for 2021 as the club looks to establish itself in the Essendon District Football League’s top flight.
The Eagles produced a winless season when they were last in Premier Division in 2017 but are confident of retaining the majority of their list.
Whitnall steered Craigieburn to its third senior premiership last season as a first-year coach.
“He’s definitely a Craigieburn person,” president John Perrone declared.
“We’re very happy for him to stay on and grow with the club with the ability he’s got to engage with the younger players and embrace them.
“Hopefully we get up there a little bit in Premier league for next year.”
The former Carlton captain was football manager at the Eagles two years ago before taking over the top job.
Whitnall, who has coached Glenroy and worked at Calder Cannons, has focused on building the club’s young stable, with Brock Chircop, Josh Vilinskis and Liam Middleton among the standout performers.
Craigieburn’s pace proved a decisive factor on the wide expanses of Windy Hill in last year’s Division 1 finals series.
“He had a plan … got the players all united with the right culture at the time,” Perrone said.
“The boys embraced it. He wanted speed, speed, speed, he put it together and at the business end it came to fruition. He was very, very happy with that and so were the boys.”
Perrone said the Eagles were in discussions with “a number of players” in a bid to be competitive against the EDFL’s elite.
“We’ve spoken to all our players, we’re just finalising the contracts for them. We’ve signed quite a few and we’ll continue doing that,” he said.
“Given the COVID scenario, it’s always difficult to get it all done as quick as we’d like, but we’re getting there.
“There’s a lot of things happening at the club to make it a better and more attractive place to be. We’d hope to think people will look up to us and see that we’re going to make a bit of a dint in Premier league. Time will tell.
“We want to remain there. Lance is going to work as hard as he can with the younger group and the players we have to try and remain up there.”
They have waved goodbye to reigning best-and-fairest winner Jesse Davies, who has returned to Wallan.
Sam Laffan and Dom Micallef have crossed to Tullamarine, while Shannon Smith, who contributed 41 goals in 2019, has moved to Mernda.
There is a question mark over the futures of experienced trio Ryan Bongetti, Josh Young and Christian McErlain.
“As football gets closer, whether we have conversations with them, we don’t know,” Perrone said.
The president said Craigieburn would continue to give opportunities to its up-and-coming players.
“We’ve got a lot of the under-18s coming up, so that will be healthy,” Perrone said.
“We’re really loyal to our younger brigade. I believe that’s the future of the club and we want to maintain that sort of emphasis going forward.
“We just need to work on a very strong program to build their fitness and bodies to climb up the ladder with our homegrowns.”
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