Ambitious South Morang raring to go for Northern Football League season opener against 2014 grand finalist Reservoir

SOUTH Morang will get a strong indication of the success of its recruiting raid in the opening round of the Northern Football League season, football manager Mark Muscat says.

NFL Football: Reservoir V South Morang. at Reservoir. Sth Morang coach Craig Lambert

SOUTH Morang will get a strong indication of the success of its recruiting raid in the opening round of the Northern Football League season, football manager Mark Muscat says.

The Lions have been one of the most active Division 3 clubs over the off-season and expect to have at least six new faces in their Round 1 side to face Reservoir on April 11.

Muscat said the Mustangs, who made last year’s grand final, were the ideal opponent for South Morang to tackle in the opening round to discover how far it has come.

“We wanted to have a good test in Round 1 and I suppose there’s no better test than having last year’s grand finalists,” Muscat said.

“(We’ll see) how hard we’ve trained and how much we’re going to improve.”

The Lions have made no secret of their ambition to secure promotion to Division 2, snaring a host of experienced players headlined by forwards Paul Harrison and Wayne Pavitt.

Simon Crump, Ben Taylor-Egan, David Berryman, Ben Stewart and Tristan Simmons have also joined the club, bolstering a team that reached last year’s preliminary final.

“They’ve all fitted in really well and there’s an exciting feeling around the club,” Muscat said.

“We know our opposition are going to be improving as well.”

Muscat said he expected the race for the Division 3 premiership to be hotly-contested.

“Epping coming down from Division 2 will be pretty tough,” he said.

“Reservoir will be very tough and Banyule coming into the competition will be a bit of an unknown until we’ve all played against them.”

South Morang will play four tough practice matches before the start of the season, starting with a fixture against Whittlesea on Wednesday, March 4.

The Lions will also face Geelong Football League club Lara, Essendon District Football League Division 2 runners-up Roxburgh Park and Mernda before the start of the campaign.

Meanwhile, Lalor has filed a clearance request for former Montmorency defender Harley Ryan.

In other Division 2 news, Thomastown has declared its recruiting efforts are far from finished after signing VFL-listed players Josh Totino (Coburg) and Tim Totevski (Northern Blues) as aligned players.