Murrumbeena signs ex-VFL star, former guns and country stars

The recruits are flowing for Murrumbeena, with the Lions adding up to 10 players to their list this off-season. Here’s who they’ve welcomed.

The Murrumbeena boys are back in town.

After losing last year’s Southern Division 3 grand final in heartbreaking style, Murrumbeena has welcomed back a raft of former players – and new ones – to strengthen its list ahead of 2023.

While he hasn’t watched the one-point grand final defeat, Lions’ coach Liam Wilson says he gathered one crucial learning from the game: his group needs size and experience.

“I haven’t brought myself to watch the game yet, it just felt like everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” he recalled.

“We have spoken about it, we aren’t going to dwell on it because we have quite a different team this year, moving up to Divvy 2 we needed some bigger boys and more experience.

“We got a lot of lessons from the grand final, but we aren’t trying to use it as anything except an experience.”

Beena has lost few players and has brought in up to 10 recruits, including former VFL-midfielder Jordan Pollard, forward Daniel Willis, Darcy and Josh Hargrave and Sam Michael.

Although he sought after bigger bodies and on-field experience, Wilson wasn’t willing to throw away the building winning culture for a “quick fix”.

“We wanted to keep the culture we built last year by bringing ex-Murrumbeena boys back,” he said.

“They came down (last year) and saw we had that winning culture back around the club, so it was easy to get the ex-Beena boys back.

“We needed some bigger bodies and more experience, we have very good young talent, but they need some in-game coaching from the players as well.

“I think we have five or six players that have captained before, which is massive for me and massive for the younger players.

“I think it shows we are on track to building success year after year rather than a quick fix.”

Jordan Pollard applies a big tackle. Picture: Mark Stewart

The Lions won’t have to wait for a chance to reveal if they’re capable in Division 2 with East Brighton first up in Round 1.

Wilson is well aware of the Vampires’ recruiting exploits and is counting down the days to April 15.

“They did pretty well last year in Divvy 2 but I think they’re going to be one of the stronger clubs this year,” he said.

“It’s going to be our first game at home with our new clubrooms, it’s going to be a really exciting game.

“On paper I rate East Brighton as one of the teams to beat, the boys know that, so I don’t think they’ll need too much inspiration.”