SFNL: South Mornington’s new recruit fired off seven goals on debut
South Mornington added five players ahead of the clearance deadline last week and one of them wasted no time in making his presence on the competition felt.
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He wasted no time in his new threads.
Mercurial forward Ryan Gillis starred for South Mornington on Saturday after committing to the Southern league Division 3 contender during the week.
Gillis, who has kicked over 700 career goals, was having a year off before he got a call from Tigers’ coach Chris Baker.
Gillis came straight into the Tigers’ side, who have been without forward Anthony Giuliano, and fired off seven goals.
Baker says Gillis’ energy is contagious and he can’t wait to see the star forward link up with Giuliano and Travis French who combined for 176 goals last season.
“We knew he wasn’t playing so we just reached out to him, we got wind it was either us or Carrum Pat and he chose us – it’s good to play with him and not against him,” Baker said.
“He’s a special type of character, everyone knows that, it’s great because it brings atmosphere and energy to the team and it’s contagious.
“It frees up Trav (French), having Gigs out for the last five weeks, everyone knows where our focus is going to and know they can double him.
“Getting someone like Ryan in, they can’t do that, it frees up both of them and then hopefully when Gigs comes back it’ll be really hard for teams to defend three of the best forwards in our comp.”
The Tigers bounced back from its big defeat last week by thrashing Narre South Saints, 29.23 (197) to 1.3 (9).
Baker told the group to write off the performance against the Dolphins and reset for the back end of the year.
“We said to them on Saturday: ‘last week was last week’,” he said.
“Good teams bounce back, we had four new guys come in on the weekend so we said the season starts now, new team, new players, eight to 10 guys (from the twos) who could come in.
“It’s time now to really put the foot down by working hard at training, fighting for spots – you just have those games and move on.
“We didn’t focus on it too much because we know that’s not the team we are.”
The Tigers added Gillis’ brother Nathan, Ben Black, Brendon Kruse and Ben Webster ahead of the June 30 deadline.
Baker expects Giuliano to return from his hand injury in the next three weeks.
Frankston Dolphins, meanwhile, added Jordy Waite back into the mix – albeit it through the reserves.
Waite kicked 64 goals for the Dolphins last year before opting to play country footy this year.
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