DONALD and St Arnaud will start their North Central Football League campaigns on Saturday with plenty of excitement surrounding the clubs.
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Both teams will have young squads and are looking to build throughout the season with new coaches taking charge of the senior sides.
Boort v Donald
IN HIS first game back at Donald, Tom Bell will lead a young side to take on Boort away from home.
It has been a busy off-season for many clubs and the side is excited to get things underway.
“Preparations are going really well and things are looking very positive going into round one,” Bell said.
“We are missing a couple of people because of holidays but we head in strong.”
Last season the sides played three times with Donald winning the first two occasions but coming up short in the final encounter.
That counts for little this season with the make-up of both teams set to be very different.
“I had a look at the games from last year but they can only tell you so much,” Bell said. “The Wilson brothers are quite handy and I know James Orr is good as well.
“From what I have heard they have recruited pretty well.”
Bell knows that sometimes the new players touted as something special are not always the only ones to keep an eye on.
“Often it’s the young players who take a step up (who play well) … everything is a little bit unexpected in round one,” Bell said.
“I just want the team to go out there and a have red hot go at the ball.
“I think the team that settles those early nerves quickest will go on to take the game.”
Sea Lake-Nandaly v St Arnaud
MUCH of the talk surrounding Sea Lake-Nandalay’s off-season recruitment places them as one of the sides that will show real improvement.
That means the first round will be a good a test for St Arnaud’s new coach Jason DeGraaf and his young side.
“We will have seven guys playing their first game for the club and three juniors playing their first game of senior football,” DeGraaf said.
“There will probably be a few nerves around, but that will be the case for all the players at all the clubs in round one. Everyone wants to put their best foot (forward).”
But DeGraaf said the young players brought more than nerves to the game.
“They also bring extra enthusiasm,” he said.
“The boys will all feed off that and I think we have a good balance overall.
“This game will give us a good idea of where we are at. We won’t really know until 4.30pm on Saturday.”
