Nick Hind signs with Darley for next season

Former Essendon utility Nick Hind has found his newest footballing home in a move which will help form one of local footy’s best duos. Here is what we know.

Nick Hind is heading back to the Ballarat league. Photo by Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

In what is sure to be a nightmare for opposition teams next year, Darley has signed Nick Hind to join Brett Bewley and form a dynamic ex-AFL duo.

The Devils have signed the former Essendon and St Kilda player just weeks after he was delisted by the Bombers.

The speedster has experience in the Ballarat league, playing for East Point under Dan Jordan in 2013, before making the move to Essendon’s VFL team.

His faith in Hind at that time helped the plumber from Clunes to become an AFL player.

Former Essendon player Nick Hind will be playing for Darley next year. Photo by Albert Perez/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Now, he’s back with Jordan, looking to help the club win its second premiership in three years.

“I’m super excited to be joining DJ and the Devils for 2025,” Hind said in a club statement.

“I’ve obviously kept a close eye on them over the past few years with DJ at the helm and watched a few games when I could.

“I love the environment the club has created and found the boys and the club really welcoming.”

Darley coach Dan Jordan gave an insight into the relationship he shared with Hind.

“I have obviously been a close friend of Nick’s over the past 10 years and we had spoken about him coming to play when his AFL career ended,” he said.

“I know he is the sort of character and footballer that will greatly add to our program and continue to help develop our considerable young talent by bringing his experience, work ethic and leadership to our club.

“Unless a genuine AFL opportunity is offered which we will of course honour, Nick will be assisting myself with some coaching as well as playing and we look forward to welcoming Nick to the Devils in 2025 and beyond.”

Club president Mark Shelly expressed his own excitement.

“He’s signed and committed,” Shelly said.

“He’s had a very close relationship with Dan over the past few years. At the end of the day we trust Dan Jordan’s judgement (in relation to him).”

Shelly said Hind would replace the role Matt Denham played last year for the club.

Denham has retired after almost 15 years at three Ballarat clubs including Bacchus Marsh, Melton and Darley.

Hind would play in the midfield and Shelly said it was sure to create headaches for other teams.

For the past three years the opposition has had to deal with Bewley, who has won two of the last three league best-and-fairests.

Now Shelly hopes other teams have another nightmare to deal with.

“The real boost for us is all of a sudden the teams we compete against, they have all ran around trying to put two or three players on Brett, now all of a sudden they have someone of Nick’s calibre to deal with,” he said.

“They are going to have some thinking to do to stop both of them.”

Shelly said the club was hampered last year by injuries as it aimed to win back-to-back flags.

But with everyone back for next season the focus is on getting back to the top.

“We don’t make excuses, the reality is we were probably the third best team all year and that’s where we finished,” Shelly said.

“Having said that we had some key personnel out at various times and the other part is you don’t realise the impact others had on leaving.

“We had a number of these players reeture all at once and leave hundreds of games of experience out. We were fortunate to play a number of kids.

“We had two under-17s play senior football and had six or seven of our under-19s play a couple of games. We had under-19 representation in the preliminary final.

“That speaks volumes for the development at the club and we’re really comfortable with where our list got to last year.”

Originally published as Nick Hind signs with Darley for next season