Tullamarine knew that it needed to strengthen its squad for next year’s Essendon District Football League division 1 season and it couldn’t be much happier.
The Demons spent much of Zack Carey’s first season in charge in the relegation conversation, but did enough to survive in division 1.
“We’re pretty happy with our recruits,” Carey said. “We needed to with our end of year results not where we wanted to be.
“We had a lot of umpires and bad luck but we needed to improve the list.”
The Demons went bang early in the off season when they announced one of the biggest names in the EDFL, Josh Covelli, was joining them next season.
Covelli, a league best and fairest winner, is coming off a second straight season of kicking 100 goals in a year.
This year his last and 100th goal came late in Hillside’s grand final win.
Carey said getting Covelli was something the club had been looking at for a little while.
“It’s huge for the club, not only the playing group but the supporters,” he said.
“The thing is, he’s not just a good footballer. He’s one of the better people in the competition.
“He will help improve our juniors. Hopefully he’ll kick his 1000th goal of his career early in the year.”
Covelli is one of two premiership Sharks to join the Demons with premiership captain Zak Wunhym also making the move across.
Carey said the pair led the way on the first night of pre-season.
“He’s another good person and a great leader,” he said of Wunhym.
“He brings leadership and helps us on how we can improve quicker up the ladder.
“He’s also a premiership player at Keilor so he brings a premier mindset with him.”
The Demons have added three other players so far for next season.
The first Tom Jackson returns to the club and will form a partnership with Covelli up forward.
“He wasn’t sure about leaving last year but he decided to head to the RDFL [Riddell District Football League].
“He kicked 40-50 goals and enjoyed his footy again. He had lost the passion and we had talked all the way through the year to get him back to Tulla.
“He has a good ability around goals and working with a big body like Josh, Tom may not get the best defender all the time and he might get off the chain.”
Lucas Scerri crosses from Strathmore.
Carey previously coached Scerri, who played in the 2023 premier division grand final.
“He’s only 21 and he real leadership,” he said. “He will play a big role for us.”
The Demons have also added a midfielder who is moving down from Queensland.
Carey said heading into his second season in charge, things had been a lot smoother this time round.
He said knowing the playing group and competition gave them a big head start on where they were 12 months ago.
“Last year we lost 27 players in the first part of the pre-season,”he said. “This year we’ve got almost no turnover.
“We’ve only got two guys on the entire list that have not re-signed.
“Hopefully in a year or two we can build something and get Tulla back up there.”
