SFNL: How St Paul’s McKinnon will benefit from its six off-season recruits

A Southern league contender’s premiership ambitions have taken a huge step forward, landing six recruits including a league medallist.

The Bulldogs have sharpened their bite.

St Paul’s McKinnon targeted a mix of big-bodied midfielders and key pillars down back to lift its 2025 premiership ambitions.

The Doggies have signed Stuart Wines (Black Rock), Wade King (Benalla), Jack Cackett (East Keilor), Blake Uebergang (Benalla), Justin Bennett (Bonbeach) and Will Dwyer (Shepparton Swans) in a strong off-season haul.

St Paul’s McKinnon finished second on the Southern league Division 1 ladder but fell to Dingley in the semi and preliminary final.

Coach Andy Scott felt depth, particularly through the middle, was the Doggies’ downfall in the finals and believes Wines, King and Dwyer amend that.

“For us, depth was a massive key that we needed to add especially through our midfield,” he said.

“We wanted some experienced midfielders with stronger bodies to help out our existing midfield in (Jimmy) Sziller, Bevo (Kyle Beveridge), Reagan (Maddaford), Nick Roberts.

“That’s why Stu Wines, young Will Dwyer, he is a big-bodied midfielder, and obviously Wade is a classy half-forward mid.

“We targeted these guys pretty early in our recruiting.”

Reigning Division 3 medallist Stuart Wines.

The Doggies were an exciting group when up and running in 2024.

Their dash and dare was their strength and one of the main reasons they lost just two home and away matches.

Scott thinks the addition of the bigger midfielders will only help the Doggies’ outside flair.

“We think they will complement our existing game plan,” he said of the recruits.

“Getting guys who can help our strength which is our speed a run with some bigger bodies, game plan wise there will be no drastic change.

“It was a tough end to the year because we had done so much great work throughout the year and we felt we kind of limped into finals with a stack of injuries.

“Injuries are never an excuse, we’ve got a ‘next man up’ mentality and we proved we could do that but when you’re playing teams like Dingley and Cheltenham, that’s when you don’t have the luxury of carrying injuries.”

Wade King played at Murrumbeena before Benalla. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Sunday Majok Aneet (WFNL), Kieran Knox (retired) have departed St Paul’s McKinnon, leaving need for some defensive reinforcement.

The Dogs have got that too in Uebergang and Cackett.

“That (defenders) was another recruiting aim for us,” Scott said.

“Blake is a tall utility who can play key-post forward or back and Jack Cackett is a tall defender.

“That was another area we wanted to add a bit more depth.”

The Doggies may also have star midfielder Matt O’Brien come back into the side after a year out with a knee injury.

O’Brien, who won the club’s best and fairest in 2023, is expected to remain on Collingwood’s VFL list but have the Doggies as his home club.