Tara Murray
Tullamarine coach David Connell said their list management for the 2021 Essendon District Football League division 1 season couldn’t have gone much better.
After no football was played in 2020 due to COVID-19 and salary caps dropping, clubs have had challenges signing squads for next year.
Connell said things had worked out quite well for them.
“Given the fact that we’ve had to cut the budget significantly and we haven’t lost much and got four or five guys in,” he said. “We don’t think we could have done much better.
“We haven’t lost anyone 100 per cent yet. There’s a couple weighing up whether they are in our best 22 and might drop to division 3.
“We might lose one or two.”
The Demons have added Kirk Lang, Dom Micallef and Sammy Laffan to their squad, while Russ Laurie has returned after not playing last season.
Connell expects all of them to have an impact.
“Kirk trained with us from the pre-season and was great with his experience and voice and leadership at training even though he wasn’t playing for us.
“Picking up Kirk and Dom and then getting Russ back, it’s probably the strongest team down back we’ve had in my time.
“Sammy is someone we’ve been chasing for a couple of years with his speed.”
Steve Vocale has returned from overseas and will add another element along with the guys that they signed ahead of the 2020 season.
The Demons are expected to be one the contenders in 2021 having kept their strong list together.
East Keilor, which has recruited well, is seen by many as the clear premiership favourites.
“Look at the end of the day they’ve put together a fantastic list,” Connell said of the Cougars.
“The challenging part will be able to have them all playing on the one day [due to player points].
“You won’t have to beat their best 22, which we don’t have to deal with which is a great advantage for us.”
Connell said having done most of the signings for the season, it was a weird time with a lot of unknown when they can return to training.
Normally they would be looking to start pre-season training about now.’
Connell said it would depend on what training looked like on when they would start training.
“If it’s just groups of 10, it was pretty difficult in the June period,” he said. “If we’re allowed 20 it might be a bit easier.
“We might even be able to give them training programs and stuff that they can do by catching up together.”
