Old Eltham Collegians’ West Preston-Lakeside flavour grows
Old Eltham Collegians’ coach Matt Sleeman admits he catches himself talking about his old club West Preston-Lakeside as the Turtles secure a Roosters premiership player for 2020.
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Old Eltham Collegians have secured one of the recruits of the Division 3 off-season with West Preston-Lakeside premiership star Luke McKenna putting pen to paper.
The damaging half-back flanker returns to the NFL after two seasons with Echuca in the Goulburn Valley league.
McKenna played 17 games for the Bombers last season, including the grand final loss to Kyabram, and was named in the league’s top 50 players.
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Turtles coach Matthew Sleeman works with McKenna and revealed persistence paid off.
“I tried to get him last year and he decided to stay up at Echuca, but he’s decided to come across for this season,” he said.
“It’s pretty exciting, he’s obviously a very good player, and he’s still only 31 so he’s got plenty of footy left in him at Div 3 level.”
McKenna was a member of West Preston-Lakeside’s 2010 Division 1 premiership team and adds to the Roosters flavour at Eltham College.
Sleeman, a former long-time player and two-time reserves premiership coach at J.E Moore Park, was happy for the Turtles’ rise to be influenced by the back-to-back Division 1 premiers.
“Our backline is very West Preston at the minute — we’ve got Tommy O’Neill, Mick Batey, Travis Stevens, and now Luke,” he said.
“I have to pull myself up at training quite a bit. I played and coached at West Preston for 15-20 years and I quite often find myself saying ‘this has worked (at West Preston), this hasn’t worked and this is what we’re doing’.
“I try not to say it too many times but it’s the only reference I’ve got. If we can model ourselves on what they’ve done we’re heading in the right direction.”
Collegians are looking to build on a successful debut season in the NFL as they won six games after staving off extinction and crossing from the VAFA.
The Turtles had 36 players take part in a pre-season camp in Anglesea with Sleeman excited by his squad’s potential.
“I think it will be a really good base for us to kick off 2020,” he said.
“I’m pretty confident that we’re doing the right things, heading in the right direction, and we’re going to have a reasonably successful year.”
Old Eltham Collegians host Lalor in its opening match of 2020 on April 4.
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