Tara Murray
One of the Northern Football League’s most influential players in recent times is returning to the field, this time with South Morang.
The Lions announced that former AFL player Gary Moorcroft was making a shock comeback alongside his son Beau Moorcroft, who has also joined the club.
Lions coach Gary Hall said Gary Moorcroft hadn’t missed a beat.
“He brings a lot of experience with him obviously,” Hall said. “Beau is good friends with a couple of boys and decided to come over.
“Gaz is a bonus. He’s still fit and in good condition and hasn’t missed a training session.”
Hall said Gary would play a key role on ground, proving plenty of leadership in the Lions forward line and help directing play.
Gary played 98 games for Essendon and Melbourne, including the 2000 premiership, before joining Bundoora.
He kicked more than 600 goals and played in three premierships as well as coaching a women’s premiership, before retiring at the end of the 2019 season.
The inclusion of Moorcroft gives the Lions some more experience as they make the move back up to division 2 after winning the division 3 premiership this year.
Hall said they hadn’t lost any players from this season’s squad but had added a number of players, many who were returning to the club after going to play elsewhere.
Lachie Potter, Josh D’intinosante and James Traianou are among those to return to the club. D’intinosante is still on Coburg’s Victorian Football League list.
“We’ve gained a few boys who were juniors at the club and still good mates with the boys,” Hall said.
“They’ve got a strong bond off the field and they’ve come back to play together, it just makes sense.
“We found it very hard to keep players in division 3, now we have a new lease on life.”
Hall said now was perfect timing for the side to go back up a division with the core group of players between 20 and 25 and having played 70 to 80 senior games.
He said the playing group had been eager to get back to business.
“We’ve had five weeks and they’re all in pretty good nick,” he said.
“After three to four weeks after the grand final they were asking when we were starting again.
“It is good, it’s not like the old days and we had to drag them from the pub. They’re really self motivated, which is a good bonus.”
