Tara Murray
It will be a more attacking Craigieburn in the Essendon District Football League division 1 competition this season.
After a good first season in charge at the Eagles, coach Shane Jacobs has looked to change things up to help close the gap to the top five.
“We have a new game plan,” he said. “A bit more attacking.
“We were very defensive last year and we want to have a better balance between offence and defence, especially early in the season.”
To go with the new game plan, the Eagles have looked to recruit, bringing in some new faces and some familiar names.
Jacobs said one of the areas they lacked in last season was depth.
“It is something we wanted to do,” he said about adding more depth. “We wanted to strength the twos as well.
“We want pressure on in the twos for spots and we’ve achieved that for the senior squad.
“We got some players in and some old players back.”
Nathan and Luke Reichelt return to the club having played at Roxburgh Park last season. Mitch Wilson joins the club from Aberfeldie while two-time premiership player Jesse Davies is back at the club.
Jacobs said he was also excited to see some under-19s step up into the senior side.
Jacobs said they want to build on last season this year when they finished in sixth spot, two three games outside the top five.
“We thought it was a pretty good year,” he said. “A lot of people wrote us off at the start of the year and that we would be in the relegation zone.
“We were never in that from day one. We were a bit inconsistent last season and we’ve tried to work on consistency this year.
“We’ve got to to be better, it’s not going to be an easy division. Finals is our aim. The next step is to make finals.”
The Eagles will be on the road for a lot of the early part of the season, with works occurring at DS Aitken Reserve.
It’s meant that training has been held all over Craigieburn.
Jacobs said it would be a challenge early in the season not being able to play at home, but there’s nothing they can do about it.
The Eagles kick off their season on Good Friday against Roxburgh Park.
It’s the second year in a row the two teams have faced off on Good Friday.
“We’re really looking forward to it,” Jacobs said.
“It’s pretty much what pre-season has been about, getting ready to face Roxburgh Park.”
