Winchelsea Blues have recruited heavily for 2023 finals campaign

The Blues have not played finals since 2014 and have narrowly missed out in recent seasons, but their president believes their fortunes are set to change after a busy off-season.

Newcomb Football star Brenton Rees has joined the GDFL at Winchelsea. Picture: Mark Wilson

WINCHELSEA president Daniel Greskie says it has been a goal of the off-season to “bring home” junior Blues in an effort to play finals for the first time since 2014.

The Blues have bolstered their list with some key signings already, with Fin Parish (Grovedale), Heath Walsh (returning), Riley Berg (Barwon Heads) all returning to the club, while Brenton Rees (Newcomb), Jordan Gould (Grovedale) and Jordan Huff (Echuca) have also signed on.

Greskie said it was a priority to add experienced players to a young core of Blues that had already signed on for 2023.

“Our main goal coming into the off-season was to retain our list, which we’ve managed to do,” he said.

“We then turned our focus to adding players with plenty of experience, while also recruiting junior boys back to the club as one-point players.

Finlay Parish has left Grovedale and returned to Winchelsea for 2023. Picture: Mark Wilson

“We were very young, so we’ve focused on adding experience in guys like Brenton (Rees), Riley (Berg) and Fin Parish, all those guys are big-time senior players with plenty of experience.”

Winchelsea finished seventh on the GDFL ladder with eight wins, which was off the pace for finals by 16 points.

Greskie said with the squad the Blues had now, as well as promising potential signings to announce in the near-future, finals were not out of the question in 2023.

“Finals are definitely on the agenda for next year, we were a few games off but our current list will be older and more experienced, plus we’re getting guys in who have that premiership experience,” he said.

Heath Walsh has also returned to the club. Picture: Alison Wynd

“We want to continually improve to the point where we’re a consistent finals team, and we’ve definitely made those first few steps with a successful off-season.

“We’re still trying to get a ruck, we’re nearly there in terms over finalising our list but we’re trying to get a couple more in the door.

“The culture we’ve created is really pleasing, the connection between our footy and netball teams is great and it’s the happiest I’ve seen the club off the field.

“That bleeds into the actions on the field too, everyone gets along and wants to play for each other, and that’s what we’ve sold to the guys coming in.”

Originally published as Winchelsea Blues have recruited heavily for 2023 finals campaign