By Callum Ludwig
Yarra Glen Football Netball Club are looking forward to an exciting season, with the senior football sides stepping back up to Division One in the AFL Outer East competition.
The River Pigs finished fourth in Division Two last season before Covid-19 derailed the finals campaign, where they were to set to take on local rivals Kinglake in a semi-final.
Following a restructuring of the AFL Outer East’s divisions, Yarra Glen nominated to go up to Division One and coach Wayne Van Der Ross said the club aims to be really competitive this year.
“The aim for us is to play finals and we’re not going to shy away from that, I believe we’re good enough,” he said.
“Last year I thought we did pretty well, we want to be a contender, and consolidate ourselves as a Divison One side.”
Van Der Ross joined Yarra Glen as the senior coach ahead of the 2021 season after being controversially ousted by EFL club Knox, his childhood club. He signed a one-year contract for the 2020 season which was cancelled, before Knox opted to open up the position in 2021 rather than back in Van Der Ross. He chose not to re-apply for the role, disappointed by the lack of faith.
Van Der Ross said Yarra Glen hopes to build on their strong showing last season, and take on the new challenge.
“Going up a division will only benefit us in the long term, It’s an exciting time and all boys are looking forward to the challenge.”
“Everyone’s excited and I think the general public will flock to the local footy because they’ve missed it, there’ll be good crowds this weekend and hopefully good footy as well.”
Yarra Glen has seen a swathe of young returning players to the senior side this year, while Dereck Perawiti, Jayden Capuano, Samuel Mutsaers and Regen Daniel were among the outgoings.
Van Der Ross is enthusiastic about seeing young players return to the club and outlined some players who might take the league by storm this year.
“In particular we’ve got a young Yarra Glen ex-junior Charlie Ward, a six-foot-three/four key position player who can pinch-hit in the ruck alongside another two ex-juniors in Brendan Davis and Adam Whelan,” he said.
“We’ve also got another young kid from Eltham Dylan Flakemore, a smooth mover with great skills and who can run all day.”
The late addition of a women’s football team, where Glenn Murray will be the coach, and successfully getting up numbers to fill all the senior netball teams are further reason for excitement around the club.
Many of the footballers have moved up from the under 17 girls of the junior club from 2021 and will look to continue their development.
Brent Holtham will return as A and B Grade Coach of the netball sides, while the club welcomes Robyn Fraser as coach of the C and D Grade teams.
Van Der Ross said he can’t wait to take on Division One mainstays Emerald in Round 1 this weekend.
“They had a really good year last year winning about four to six games, and it won’t be an easy game for us, we have to go there with the right attitude,” he said.
“It’d be a great way to start the year if we can knock off Emerald, but we know some good teams lie ahead of us and Emerald is definitely one of them.”
