Rupanyup are confident they have filled the void in their ruck department with the return of Timothy Tyler for the 2019 Horsham District Football League season.
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Tyler played his junior football with Rupanyup and returns to the club after several seasons away.
Assistant coach Elliot Kelly said the side had identified the need for a bigger body and were pleased with the acquisition of Tyler.
"Not having a ruckman last season had a huge impact - after Zac May left we were trying to fill that role, so to get someone like Tim is awesome," Kelly said.
"He's in that perfect age group being in his mid-20s. He's tall, athletic, fast. He will certainly help a lot."
Both Zac and Jordan May will not return to the Panthers this season, but Kelly said the club had made some other acquisitions and was hopeful of improvement this season.
"We’ve had obviously a big influx of people coming to Longrenong and the agricultural college, so that has been awesome," Kelly said.
"We had five Darwin boys last year as well - we won't have all five for the whole season but we'll have three of them living in Horsham this year and training and playing with us, which is great."
Kelly said Ty Maher and Geoff Stephenson were a two players training well and looked set to take the step-up next season.
Kelly said with gradual improvement he was hoping for more consistent performances next season.
"The list we had was good last year, I reckon with the list we had we under-performed a bit," he said.
"By adjusting a few things hopefully we can improve a bit - I reckon if we can get that little bit of improvement and add in a ruckman and potentially a couple of wingman, we should be in a pretty good spot this year."