SFNL: Narre Warren welcomes back a league medallist, premiership player

A suburban footy power just got a whole lot stronger with the return of a league-medal winning centre half-forward. Here are the details.

Jake Richardson lines up for goal. Picture: Tyler Lewis

Narre Warren coach Steven Kidd expects his side’s latest addition to keep opposition defenders busy.

The Magpies will welcome back star centre half-forward Jake Richardson in 2025 after two seasons overseas.

Richardson kicked 74 goals, took home the league best and fairest and helped Narre Warren win the Outer East flag in his last season in 2022.

Richardson adds to a forward six which averaged 99 points per game last year.

“It’s awesome for us to have him back, his experience, his size, his leadership – I guess the whole package,” Kidd said.

“He doesn’t just bring being a quality player but the experience of being a past captain and I think he’s played nearly 160 games.

“He is just such a difficult match-up for opposition backmen just because of his size and work rate, he puts in more than most on the training track.

“It might take him a bit of time to get back into full swing of it, he only played a little bit overseas but I don’t know what the standard was like … I think he kicked 15 one game.”

Richardson celebrates one of his 74 goals in 2022. Picture: Valeriu Campan

The Magpies enter the Southern league after winning three of the past four Outer East premierships.

The success extended beyond the senior side too, as they won several under-19 and reserves premiership during the same period.

They haven’t actively recruited any external recruits, instead welcoming back former players like Richardson while backing in their youth.

“It’s what we look for as much as we can, the homegrown guys coming in,” Kidd said.

“The recipe for our success has always been backing in what we’ve got and what we’ve developed ourselves so we’ve sort of stuck with that.

“We’re still going down the path of trying to develop the kids we’ve got but to have Richo come back in, he’ll assist us in that way and take if not the opposition best backmen pretty close to it.”

Richardson lines up for goal. Picture: Tyler Lewis

Kidd says only time will be able to tell where Narre Warren stands in the Southern league but knows his players are working hard to make an impact.

“We’re really unsure of where we’re going to sit,” he said.

“I think the first goal is to just hopefully make the finals, that’s our goal, we want to be competitive week-in-week-out and challenge the top teams.

“As to where we will sit, we don’t know, we had really good numbers last night so they’ll put their head down and be ready to go come April.”

Narre Warren hosts Cranbourne in its inaugural Southern league match.