By Dongyun Kwon
Yarra Glen Football and Netball Club (YGFNC) is looking forward to a new season.
Last season the YGFNC had to finish off the season feeling bittersweet with winning just one premiership by the C Grade netball team despite making finals by most of the teams including the senior football team and A Grade netball team.
To start the new season with a higher goal, the club has tried to make the squad depth of all teams thicker.
YGFNC treasurer David Ball said the squad depth was one of the weak points that its footy teams had last year.
“We lacked depth with our football team, we were competitive with the top teams when we had our best team available but as we all know, injuries are a part of footy, we need depth,” he said.
“We have worked hard to recruit, but while we have improved our numbers, we have had a number of retirements amongst our better players.
“We are still trying to add new players to our list. We have had about 50 players who have signed or have committed to play football this year.
“Our netball teams have great numbers and we have added an U 17 to our 4 senior netball teams. Our netball teams have a full roster.”
The Yarra Glen sports pavilion that YGFNC is using has been damaged by flooding twice in the last two years, the latest one in January this year.
Mr Ball said the club couldn’t use the clubroom for most of the last year.
“Once again, we find ourselves without the use of our rooms for the early games as flood damage from the January storms requires restoration work,” he said.
“This commenced on March 25 and we are hopeful the rooms will be available in May.”
Despite the hard conditions, the club is looking forward to playing in the new season.
“We are looking forward to playing in Division 1 this year. We were in Division 2 last season but with the restructure of the League moving to 2 divisions from the 3 last year, it will be a great challenge,” he said.
“We aim to put 2 competitive football teams out each week with a very competitive core group of football players who have put in a good pre-season.
“We are hopeful our netball teams can provide a couple that make finals.”
