Diamond Creek coach Andrew Tranquilli discusses recruiting and expectations
Diamond Creek has enjoyed a successful summer recruiting campaign and coach Andrew Tranquilli reveals the Creekers’ methods.
Northern
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The NFNL Division 2 arms race was red-hot over summer and Diamond Creek has been right in the thick of it.
After reaching the preliminary final last season, Creekers have added several quality recruits for 2023 – most notably two club juniors.
Dale Marshall (East Keilor) and Billy Bedford (Greensborough) return to Coventry Oval together with Mitch Tobin (Avenel), Brenton Keating, Jacob Maynes (both Bundoora), Tarwin Rennie (Montmorency) and Josh Sims (Epping).
Diamond Creek coach Andrew Tranquilli said his club was now a destination club.
“We’ve added a couple, friends of friends that have heard what we’re all about, that were disgruntled or not happy where they were.
“We identified a lot of talent that we lost seven or eight years ago, these are Diamond Creek juniors.
“The No.1 reason was, with no disrespect to anyone in that era, it was a place where ‘happy to play footy and if we win, we win’ but now we want to win and we’ll make it a happy place to be, so it’s a shift in mindset and culture.
“They’ve gone and tasted what Division 1 and Premier and VFL footy is all about and they’re bringing a standard back.
“Speaking to Dale, we told him what we were all about and goes ‘I’d love to come back and finish where I started’ and he’s brought his brother-in-law, who lives in Diamond Creek, in Brenton Keating.
“Billy Bedford was umming-and-ahhing about not playing at all, we had a chat with him and he goes ‘I’d love to come back and do what we’ve got to do’.”
Bedford was a key pillar in Greensborough’s defence, playing more than 100 Division 1 games for the club.
Marshall has a stellar local footy resume having won a Division 1 premiership with Bundoora in 2017, represented the NFNL and Vic Metro Under-25s, won the Mornington Peninsula league MVP in 2021 and spent time on Essendon and Carlton’s VFL lists.
Keating was also a part of the 2017 Bundoora premiership and also helped the Bulls claim the reserve grade flag last season.
Tobin, meanwhile, was a part of West Preston-Lakeside’s back-to-back Division 1 premierships and spent 2022 with Avenel in the Kyabram District league.
“Mitch Tobin has a connection through one of our players, they work together … he knows what it takes to play at a high level and he’s been fantastic from day one, helping the kids and teaching the kids.
“He’s brought one of his mates, young Josh Sims has crossed over from Epping.”
While the Creekers have welcomed in several new players the likes of Team of the Year defender Sam Gleeson, Tom Bennett and David Mennen have departed, while Josh Marchbank is expected to take a year off.
With several premiership rivals strengthening their squads over the summer, Tranquilli says the club wasn’t under pressure to recruit knowing it still had a lot of young talent pushing up.
He was hopeful of youngsters such as Ryan Sizeland, Brodie Watson, Matt Brennan and Tom Baird would become regular senior players.
Practice matches against Park Orchards, Marcellin and West Coburg have been locked in before a season-opener under lights at Bill Lawry Oval on Saturday, April 15 against relegated Northcote Park.
The expectations are simple.
“Obviously we’d like to make finals and top three is our goal to begin with and then what comes from there, we’ll see,” Tranquilli said.
“Outside noise will be saying we went so far so they’ve got something going but there’s also talk of was it a one-off, was it a fluke?
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“Eltham is going to be just as strong, if not stronger, and Northcote Park is the smokie for me, even though we know they’ve lost a lot of players, they’re still going to be a good outfit.
“Lower Plenty, yeah they’ve lost key players, but Plunks (Phil Plunkett) is a good coach and I’ve got no doubt he’ll be grooming a lot of those kids to rebuild the club.
“And Panton Hill, they’ve gone and got a lot of players, they’ve got some of ours as well, and will be hard to beat up there at Panton Hill.
“South Morang too, I know what it feels like to come up from Division 3 to Division 2 and find that extra 5 to 10 per cent and I wouldn’t be taking them lightly.”
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