Altona is keen on not just making up the numbers in the Bowls Victoria weekend pennant premier division this season.
Having just missed out on finals last season, the A’s the side recruited a number of players to give themselves plenty of depth.
Coach Dane McKinnon said they had looked to strengthen the squad across all their sides.
“Looking from a club’s perspective, we’re always looking to bring in new players or experienced players from other clubs,” he said.
“In premier we just missed finals and it came down to the last game. We didn’t have the same depth as some of the premier league sides.
“It cost us in the end.”
McKinnon said they would have a squad of about 26 for the premier division side, meaning players had to perform and there would be selection headaches.
He said the players understand that it takes a whole squad to have success at this level.
“We’ve bought in quite a few new faces, some experienced ones and a bit of youth,” he said
“It will help us this season.
“The squad understands you need to take a group mentality. There’s the hunger to play every week.”
Brett Dodd is the biggest signing for Altona.
He’s played for the club previously on a couple of occasions and brings plenty of experience to the side.
McKinnon said they had also recruited a number of guys from the Geelong region who had been pretty impressive so far.
The A’s started their season on Saturday against MCC.
The match went down to the wire, with Altona winning by one shot, 74 (14)-73 (4).
Nathan Wilson had a one shot win for the A’s, while McKinnon had a two shot win. Matt Lawrence and Aaron Wilson both suffered one shot losses in their rinks.
McKinnon said naturally they want to rise up the ladder, but know it wouldn’t be an easy task.
“Our aim is we don’t want to make up the numbers,” he said. “We want to win the competition like all seven other teams.
“It’s such a competition and it’s so exciting. The first thing is to qualify for finals and then finis as high as we can.
“We want to give ourselves the best chance to make finals. We want to win the thing, but every side would be saying that.”
Altona this week faces Bundoora on Saturday.
In other results, Yarraville Footscray lost the grand final rematch with Deer Park on Friday night.
It was a dominant display by the Parkers, who lost last season’s grand final, winning 87 (18)-60 (0).
Nathan Black’s rink lost by one shot for the Bulldogs, but all the other losses were by five or more shots.
