Colac Tigers’ new signings breathe life into pre-season

Colac had a major turnover of some of its veterans in the off-season, but some of the club’s newest Tigers are forging their way forward.

Football GFL , St Mary's v Colac at Anthony Costa Oval Geelong. Colac 25 Darcy Lang Picture: Mark Wilson

AFTER a busy off-season full of player movements, Colac Tigers co-coach Darcy Lang believes the club is feeling refreshed ahead of 2023.

Colac enjoyed a productive off-season, bringing a number of junior Tigers back to the club, including former VFL-listed Jarrod Walters and ex-Saint Tom Simpkin.

Lang said it was important for the side to replace some of the experienced talent that had retired or moved on.

“We’ve had some turnover so it’ll be interesting to see how we stack up initially, but we need to be finding a groove with all of the new faces together,” he said.

Colac's Tom Simpkin. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“We had a lot of the 10-year players for the club move on, so we haven’t set ourselves any expectations on the year.

“But I don’t think it was ever going to take much to re-energise this group, we didn’t finish all that well last year so there’s a fair bit of determination to improve going into the new season.”

The Tigers finished in a strong position after the home-and-away season, but suffered a straight sets finals defeat to Newtown & Chilwell and Leopold.

Shortly after the shock finals exit, veteran Tigers Travis Woodmason and Dean Felekos retired, while Kane Leerson returned to Birregurra to take on a coaching role, Brody Mahoney moved to Cobden and Henry Walsh left the club for Lismore-Derrinallum.

Jarrod Walters will return to Colac.

Lang said the changes at the club allowed the Tigers to experiment more freely than they had in the past.

“It’s always good to see some new faces, with a few people finishing up their footy careers or moving on it presents us a few opportunities to try new things,” he said.

“We have definitely spoken about the finish to last year but it hasn’t been something that we’ve focused on in the pre-season.

“We touched on it at the end of the year and about fuelling us into the pre-season, but it’s a new year and a new season to focus on.

“It’d be nice (to finish top two), but there’s a lot of things to happen between now and then.”

Originally published as Colac Tigers’ new signings breathe life into pre-season