By Tara Murray
Bundoora is turning to youth as it goes in search of long term sustainable success in the Northern Football League division 1 competition.
After two grand finals and falling short, the Bulls this year spent most of this year down towards the bottom of the ladder in their first season under coach Heath Scotland.
With Scotland now approaching his second season in charge, it has been a busy off season for the club.
“We’ve had some turnover,” he said. “We’ve added 11 new players so far and we’ve got eight players doing VFL [Victorian Football League] pre-seasons.
“At the moment we’ve got about 82 players across the three grades of footy. We didn’t have under-19s a few years ago and we lacked depth in the reserves this year.”’
Scotland said while it’s hard to lose players, the majority of those who departed weren’t likely to be in the club’s plans for their top side.
He said they had decided to focus on the 18-24-year-old bracket as they looked towards the future.
Scotland said it was those players that were keen to drive the standards.
“They wanted to see where the club was going in the off season and where they want to take it,” he said. “They want to improve where we’re at. We’re coming from a long way back, but the proof will be in the pudding.”
Scotland said he was excited to see what the new recruits can do.
Adrian D’Intinosante has crossed from South Morang, while Joel Harris is making the step up from division 3 and Mernda and Matthew Johnson joins the Bulls from Eltham.
Riley Greene has moved to Melbourne having played the last two seasons with the Brisbane Lions in the VFL and is aligned with the Northern Bullants..
Bailey Tome joins the club from Kyabram and Northern Bullants and previously played in his home state Queensland before that.
Marc Coscarella, Tristan Mancuso and Mark Pavloski all return to the club from East Keilor and will be one-pointers.
Lachie Urbon, joins the club from the Sunbury Lions and Calder Cannons, and is set to fill the hole left by Jackson Davies.
Jamie Koutoufides, son of Anthony, is also set to play for the Bulls.
Scotland said many of the new players were looking to try their luck at the higher level.
The Bulls have also strengthened their coaching structure as well, adding people with experience at AFL or VFL level.
Scotland said they wanted to put the right people in place to help with the development of the young players coming through.
He said with the club up the top in previous seasons they had tried to top up to get a premiership, but it had meant other players had gone elsewhere for opportunities.
This year their reserves didn’t win a game as they lacked depth.
But with some new numbers and their under-19 program now looking strong, there’s plenty of excitement at the club.
“We want to make sure the club has sustained success for many years to come,” he said.
“We have 82 players and a lot of young kids who are looking to improve their footy. Most of the players are 18-24 and that ties in with the direction of the club.
“We want that pathway from 18s through to senior footy.”
