Anglesea’s Ayden Gras has booted 33 goals after six rounds to be arguably the BFNL’s best recruit in 2025
From league leading goalkickers to a dominant ruckman, these are your club’s best performing recruits so far heading into the mid-season break.
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With a host of new faces in the BFNL, the league continues to undergo a transformation with perennial cellar dwellers now legitimate threats and the average margin almost halving over the past three years.
But which new recruits have had the biggest say at their new clubs in 2025?
At first glance, it seemed like the consistently powerful had only bolstered their stocks further over the off-season, with Bellarine heavyweights Barwon Heads (Damian McMahon, Zach Walter) Anglesea (Tevan Nofi, Harrison Ling), Geelong Amateur (Mitch Day, Dan Weigl) and Torquay (Oliver Tate) all bringing in big names from the GFNL.
However, Portarlington looked further afield with the likes of Scott Greenough, Tom Panuccio, Nick Sing and Jack Dorgan, while Newcomb went as far as the Top End for talent with Oliver Poulson.
However, it’s been a Joeys reserves player who has arguably had the most impact so far after six rounds in the best offensive performance since Torquay’s Lucas Anderson averaged 5.6 goals a game in 2021 in a shortened season.
This masthead spoke to some of the senior coaches in the Bellarine for their thoughts.
The BFNL recruits of the year so far
Mitch Day
Club: Geelong Amateur
Ladder position: First
Games: Six
Goals: 25
In the club’s best: Two
Having kicked a boatload of goals during his five seasons with the Ammos last decade, Day was always going to feature heavily forward of the ball in 2025.
Alongside co-coach Sam Lloyd, the pair have combined for 43 majors so far this year as the Ammos won their opening five games and beat all of last year’s finalists, plus the Seagulls.
Queenscliff’s Lachlan McKane was handed the job of guarding the former Cat on Saturday and performed admirably, keeping Day to a relatively low haul of four goals while Lloyd went goalless for the first time this season.
However, Day still loomed as a game-breaker as the Ammos enjoyed the last eight scoring shots of the game to nearly pinch it.
Has maintained his four goals-per-game average from his previous stint with the Ammos, which yielded 378 majors from just 85 matches.
Oliver Tate
Club: Torquay
Former club: Leopold
Ladder position: Second
Games: Three
Goals: One
Torquay’s list didn’t alter too much apart from the addition of Tate and former Anglesea forward, Blake Grant, with senior coach Dom Gleeson preferring to develop from within.
Coming off back-to-back GFNL flags, the six-pointer has slipped into the Tiger mix following the loss of midfield guns like Baxter Mensch and Chase Loftus to play three games.
Unsurprisingly, Tate has been impressing with his leadership for a young Tigers group and a cool head in the heat of battle.
“He’s been amazing,” Anderson said, who is slowly recovering from a season-ending knee injury in 2024.
Meanwhile, the Tigers are hopeful Grant will make his debut after the BFNL break after playing the last two reserves matches.
Ayden Gras
Club: Anglesea
Former club: St Joseph’s
Ladder position: Third
Games: Six
Goals: 33
In the club’s best: Four
A goalkicking machine with St Joseph’s in the reserves – he booted 64 goals from 15 games last season – Gras has given the Roos another avenue to goal after the retirement of Tom Couch and key forward Dylan Pettingill moving west to play in the Perth Football League.
Gras currently leads the BFNL for majors by eight from the returning Mitch Day at the Ammos.
He has produced five five-goal hauls so far this year – following eight in Round 6 against Portarlington – and is poised to make difference for last year’s grand finalists at the pointy end of the season.
Gras’ season is the best from a Bellarine forward since Lucas Anderson’s 56 majors from 10 games in the pandemic-impacted 2021.
Lachlan Nelis
Club: Drysdale
Former club: Leopold
Ladder position: Fourth
Games: Six
Goals: Seven
In the club’s best: Three
Nelis, who crossed to Mortimer Oval from Leopold during the off-season, started his BFNL season with a bang, producing back-to-back best-on performances.
Has been winning plenty of contested footy for the Hawks so far in 2025 and is in the top 10 for clearances.
Senior coach Ben Carmichael said Nelis had been “fantastic” considering Round 1 was his first senior game in any competition.
Damian McMahon
Club: Barwon Heads
Former club: St Mary’s
Ladder position: Fifth
Games: Six
Goals: Five
In the club’s best: Five
It was one of the Bellarine’s biggest off-season coups, and it shouldn’t surprise anybody that Damian McMahon’s arrival at Howard Harmer Oval has been a roaring success so far.
McMahon had been leading the league for kicks, but Seagulls coach Sam Schaller says his impact goes well beyond sheer numbers.
“His ability to play inside and outside, his leadership on and off the field, his aerobic capacity to impact at both ends of the ground, and just his competitiveness,” Schaller said of McMahon’s qualities.
Izaac Grant
Club: Queenscliff
Former club: Hepburn
Ladder position: Sixth
Games: Six
Goals: 15
In the club’s best: Two
The Hepburn recruit has really started to hit his straps with the Coutas in the past two games from an offensive point of view, booting five against league leaders Geelong Amateur on Saturday — his second five-goal haul in a row.
Grant was particularly clever at ground level and adds a further string to Queenscliff’s forward line alongside Jonty Rush and new arrival Jayden McHenry.
Dion Johnstone
Club: Newcomb
Former club: St Mary’s
Ladder position: Seventh
Games: Six
Goals: Five
In the club’s best: Three
Recruited from St Mary’s, Johnston arrived at Grinter Reserve along with NT product Oliver Poulson for the 2025 campaign.
And in coach Tony Mirabella’s eyes, the former Melbourne-listed player has been the pick of the crop when it comes to new faces this year, loving his tackling and pressure.
Along with a resurgent Jacob Watson up forward (seventh on the goalkicking table), the 3-3 Newcomb has arguably surpassed expectations already, beating the reigning premier and losing by a point to Drysdale on the weekend — the kind of result Power fans would have dreamt of in the past.
“He leads the way with defensive efforts and one per centers with our group and is bringing the best out of them,” Mirabella said of Johnstone.
“He leads the comp for tackles and pressure, Dion is just an outstanding teammate.”
Oscar Hocking
Club: Modewarre
Former club: St Joseph’s
Ladder position: Eighth
Games: Six
In the club’s best: Six
Warriors coach Mark Hovey has been stoked with Hocking’s output so far at centre half back, finding himself in the best players in every game so far.
Hocking, who crossed to Mount Moriac Reserve after playing in St Joseph’s’ reserves last year, has helped the Warriors from a defensive stand point with only one large loss so far this year
Scott Greenhough
Club: Portarlington
Former club: Deer Park
Ladder position: Ninth
Games: Six
Goals: Three
In the club’s best: Five
The former Deer Park big man has unsurprisingly been a big in for the Demons in 2025, handed the best-on votes three times from his club and amongst the best on five occasions.
Greenough was an early top 10 contested possession winner, too.
With an ability to go forward and kick goals – slotting two against Ocean Grove – Greenhough, Tom Panuccio, Nick Sing and Jack Dorgan (top 10 for kicks and clearances early in the season) have been strong additions at Portarlington.
To run last year’s grand finalists to just four points in Round 6 shows the Demons have gone from a percentage booster for opposition teams to a genuine threat they need to plan for in just three years.
Rhys Devlin
Club: Ocean Grove
Former club: Newtown & Chilwell
Ladder position: 10th
Games: Six
Goals: Three
In the club’s best: Three
Along with Mordialloc ruck Jai Hale, Ocean Grove co-coach Nick Bourke talked up the addition of the former Grubbers junior
It’s been a tough start to the season for the club, but Devlin’s contributions have stood out in a 1-5 start.
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Originally published as Anglesea’s Ayden Gras has booted 33 goals after six rounds to be arguably the BFNL’s best recruit in 2025
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