SFNL: Springvale Districts signs Kyle Martin to continue its ‘easily best off-season’
One of local footy’s greatest-ever players is “all-in and ready to go” at Springvale Districts. Coach Kris Thompson reveals how the Demons landed Kyle Martin and where he’ll play in 2025.
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He’s “all-in”.
Kyle Martin, widely regarded as the best local footballer in Melbourne, has followed great mate Jackson Sketcher to Southern league power Springvale Districts.
He won’t be playing as a forward and he won’t be on limited games.
Martin, 34, recently stepped away from Noble Park, where he won nine best and fairests and was a triple premiership player.
Like Sketcher, the former AFL Magpie was speculated to join the Districts for some time but it was made official last week.
Martin missed the entire 2023 season with an ACL injury before returning halfway through this year.
Ecstatic Demons coach Kris Thompson said the star midfielder had already begun training ahead of a big 2025.
“He’s (Martin) tracking well, he’s training at 5am every morning with Dylan Quirk who is basically a new recruit for us coming back from injury,” Thompson said.
“He’s (Martin) ready to go, he’s a competitive bloke so he’s not coming to go through the motions.
“I know there’s a lot of talk that he’s coming to play forward and he’s only going to play eight games but that’s not true, he’s all-in and ready to go.”
Springvale Districts has improved each year under Thompson and will do so again next season.
Thompson took the Demons’ top job when they were in Division 3 and has turned them into a Division 1 contender.
He said landing Sketcher and Martin was the club’s best off-season to date.
“Yeah it’s easily the best off-season we’ve had, it’s the best position the club has been in for as long as I can remember,” he said.
“It’s pretty exciting, it was probably always going to happen, more so with Sketch, but there’s been talk of this happening for nearly 10 years that these two would finish their careers at Springy.
“There were no guarantees but people expected it to happen, the boys have a lot of close mates at Springy so it’s awesome that it’s finally happened.”
Springvale Districts has had some fine players over the years but has often been described as a team of ‘goers’ rather than stars.
But with the additions of Sketcher and Martin, there’s now no shortage of star power in the midfield.
“People have said that about our list forever, that we don’t really have any stars and that we sort of just get the most out of ourselves and I reckon we have to this point,” Thompson said.
“It’s one thing we’ve been lacking to get to the next level and compete with the best sides, we haven’t had that A-grade talent.
“We knew that’s we needed to get and it’s awesome that we’ve got it.”
The Demons have also signed ruckman Jack Beech (Noble Park) but lost Toby Arms and John Walker to Edithvale-Aspendale.
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