New St Albans coach Rick Munn’s signing spree that can improve struggling club’s fortunes in 2025

St Albans finished last in 2024, but a concerted recruiting drive can help change the club’s fortunes. The club’s new coach explains their bold strategy.

Matt Kasparian (left) is among St Albans’ signings. Picture: Mark Wilson

St Albans has as many recruits as about half the competition combined this off-season.

New coach Rick Munn has locked in a whopping 17 new signings for 2025 – compare that to reigning premiers Leopold’s one addition and Bell Park’s two.

Even South Barwon’s 10 pales in comparison to the busy summer of the Supersaints, who have only lost defender Ben Miller to his hometown of Koroit and Riley Somers to Belmont Lions.

Attracting new players can be challenging when it’s not going your way on-field, which makes St Albans’ recruiting wave all the more notable.

Stacks of signings doesn’t guarantee a strong season, though, and there are no huge names on St Albans’ list of inclusions.

But their bold recruiting drive is important as they strive to become competitive after years in the doldrums,.

St Albans finished last with two wins a meagre percentage of 26.7 in the GFNL last season.

A major reason for that was their average age, which was below 21.

Securing Clunes duo Matt Kasparian – a 29-year-old ruckman who played alongside dual Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale at under-18 level at Glenelg – and 30-year-old key forward Nic Clarke is more significant than it looks on paper.

They also landed 194cm key forward Tom Higgins on Thursday, a close friend and former teammate Geelong sensation Lawson Humphries, who booted 61 goals for Humphries’ home club Wickham Wolves in the North Pilbara league in 2022.

“We are stoked, we identified pretty early that we needed to get some experience,” Munn said.

“I think our average age for last year was 20.8 or something. So it’s been hovering around that 19-20 for the last three years and ‘Torts’ (former coach Alex Tortora) has done a great job in blooding the youngsters over the last three years.

“So we identified Matt Kasparian pretty early as a ruckman, he’s been great. Nic Clarke as a key forward – again 30 year old, lots of experience, has been awesome.”

“We’ve been tracking (Higgins) for a little while but he’s moving over for work and to Geelong specifically with Lawson, so we jumped all over it.”

The Supersaints have also added several younger players, headlined former St Joseph’s player Jed Warrin, to bolster their depth and improve their running on the wide expanses of St Albans Reserve and numbers have been strong on the track.

The returning Seth Morell took a year off after his sixth-placed in their 2023 best and fairest and is flying, while 30-year-old former Point Cook goalsneak Marcus Groves and Geelong Falcons training squad member Tyson Roberts are back as one-pointers.

Seth Morell goes in hard for the footy in 2022. Picture: Mark Wilson

After former coach Alex Tortora pumped games into their young talent, Munn feels they can go better than some expect in 2025 – with a softer draw than their nightmare 2024 fixture helping their cause.

“They’re hungry, hungry to learn and ‘Torts’ did a great over the last three years blooding a lot of the kids and now we’re just coming into teaching them some new stuff and I think they’re really buying in and really stoked at how they are tracking at the moment,” Munn said.

“There is no doubt we’ve got a friendlier draw this year, which obviously helps. And there is a clear bracket with the teams at the top that we want to get more competitive with.

“We’re aspiring to get out of that sort of bottom four clubs and really challenge that middle tier of the table. We don’t want to put any ceiling on the wins, but we just want to get more competitive for longer and stay engaged for longer.

“And if the boys trust the system and we buy in and have a bit of luck with some injuries I think we can surprise a few, we’ll see how we go.”

There was plenty of promising talent already at the club who Munn expects to go another level this season, including Hayden Elliot, Nathan Cole and Brock McDonald.

St Albans’ signing spree might not be done either, with the Supersaints having 46 player points under AFL Barwon’s tiered approach beginning this season.

“I think we’ve got room for another couple of A-graders that we can add to the list as well, which we have identified and are in talks with,” Munn said.

Originally published as New St Albans coach Rick Munn’s signing spree that can improve struggling club’s fortunes in 2025