Yarraville-Footscray has bucked the trend of high-priced recruits to go with a relatively unchanged line-up for its promotion to the Bowls Victoria premier division.
The Combine has rewarded the players who took it to the big league and heads into a fresh challenge with the same four skips – Wayne Roberts, Alan Dove, Jamie Pearce and Ray Coulter – who did the job for most of last season.
Combine player-coach Roberts said it was important for his club not to break the team bond built up in the past two seasons.
“It’s a tight little group,” he said. “It took us two years to get there, so we thought we’d stick with the same people – they’ve done all the hard work.
“We didn’t want to bring in four or five people, which would mean four or five of our own would miss out.”
The Combine’s only “ins” are unknowns at the premier level.
Aaron Putt returns to the club after time out from the game and will slot in at third.
Daniel Markham crosses from lower division Flemington-Kensington and will be a lead.
Markham could be a surprise packet after impressing in the preseason.
“We just threw him in, had a look at him to see how he went and he’s done all right, so he’ll get his opportunity this week,” Roberts said.
“He’s young, he’s keen, he’s never played at this level before but he’s willing to learn.”
The Combine is priming for a tough initiation with Mentone travelling to Francis Street for the season opener on Saturday.
The visitors are more experienced at this level, but the Combine fancies its chances on home soil.
“We’ve got a pretty good home-ground advantage. We’ve only lost two games, I think, in three years on our greens,” Roberts said.
“They play on synthetic and we’re lucky enough to get the first game at home, which will help us.
“They’ll be hard, like every other team is going to be hard.”
The Combine will start the season as underdog, a scenario Roberts is more than happy with.
“I honestly think there’s no pressure on us. They’re the highly paid teams; we’re not. They’re all expected to win when we play them.”
Altona is the only other side from the western suburbs competing in the top division.
Rosamond and Werribee have been relegated from the division in the past two seasons.
