The Warrack Eagles have signed a trio of footballers from the North Central football league, as the countdown to the 2020 Wimmera Football League season continues.
Daniel Pearce, Caleb Powell and Samuel Griffiths have joined from Donald, following the Warrack Eagles newly appointed coach Zach Holmes in crossing from the North Central league.
Holmes spent 11-years with Birchip-Watchem before signing as the Eagles head coach in October.
Holmes hoped the trio could provide a different element to a young Eagles side.
"Having a group from the North Central league come across, I'm very keen to see their experience transfer into the Wimmera league," Holmes said.
"Being involved in the NCFL myself, I understand that style of footy, so I think the injection of that style will be an exciting prospect."
Holmes said the style would be underlined by toughness.
"The differences between the two leagues was certainly bigger 10 years ago, they've probably gotten closer in their similarities recently," he said.
"But I think the NCFL has generally been a tougher league, whereas the Wimmera league is probably a bit quicker, a bit more skillful. And that's not a knock on either league to say what is better or worse.
"But I think these blokes bring a bit of that toughness, and I'm certainly keen on seeing what they can produce for us this year."
Holmes said he was hopeful of more signings to come.
"We've been in the recruiting part of the year for a fair while and it's been reasonably successful, so we're happy with where we're at," he said.
"We've tried to keep our recruiting as local as we can, which we've been reasonably successful with.
"But it certainly hasn't finished, and it doesn't really finish until round one, or, really, June 30."
The Eagles will be hoping for a resurgent season after an eighth-place finish in 2019, missing finals for the first time since 2015.
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It will have to be without two of the side's best players, as ruckman/forward Shannon Argall and midfielder Jake Peters have departed.
Holmes said beyond recruits, the improvement could come from within.
"We've held onto our younger group, which was the attraction of the club - (we have) a large contingency of kids coming through, and kids with a lot of potential too," Holmes said.
"They got a lot of senior experience last year considering how injury prone they were.
"That's going to be our strength, hopefully we can see some improvement with another year under their belts."
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