Harper Sercombe
It’s been a busy off season for last year’s Western Region Football League division 2 premiers.
As of February 19, Parkside had 24 approved clearances into the club, with a range of ‘A-grade’ talent arriving to the club as it makes the leap to the league’s top flight.
However, it hasn’t all been positive news coming out of Mervyn Hughes Oval with three-time league best and fairest and premiership captain Shaun Campbell leaving for Riddell District Football League club Diggers Rest.
“It’s been positive, going up a division, we targeted a few players that we thought we’d need and would fit the mould,” Parkside premiership coach Chris Muratore said. “But also cover the players that we’ve lost also.
“Shaun was a super talent, super leader and was huge for our footy club in the three years that he served.”
Headlining the fresh faces into the club is star brother duo, Jack and Tom Condon from the Essendon District Football League premier division runners up, Strathmore. Tom was the EDFL’s leading goal kicker last season, slotting 67 majors, including four in the grand final loss to Keilor.
Ethan Langwell has also joined the club from East Keilor in the EDFL as a playing assistant coach.
“I think we’ve got a really good balance,” Muratore said.
“We knew what we were getting and the quality of people like Tom, like Jack, like Ethan. These kinds of people were always going to bring a different standard.
“We’re super excited. We’re in a really good place as a footy club and what we’ve brought in.
“Michael Licciardo is co-coaching with myself, he’s brought in some different views with different eyes and he reads the game really well.
“We’re excited for the challenge, we’re excited to prove some people wrong, it’s a bit of a free hit for us so, we can’t wait.”
It’s not just the recruits that has Muratore excited with internal growth also sprouting off the premiership winning team.
The exciting signs early are leaving him daring to dream about what could be in the club’s return to division 1.
“We’d be silly to not think that we’d want to play finals and compete straightaway, we’ve brought in some really quality people.
“We want to go as far as we can, and who knows… you’ve just got to enjoy it and hopefully it goes our way.”
The only concern in the early days of the rejuvenated Magpies outfit is the connection between players on the field. However, Muratore isn’t worried by this as he expects it to naturally build throughout the season.
“As footballers, they’re just trying to work out what works, what are the hit zones, who’s a left footer, who’s a right footer,” he said.
“Just learning each other and that’s the biggest flaw for us at the moment. The more games and sessions we get to and the more the year goes on, we’ll get that. It’s just going to take some time.
“There’s been some teething issues which we’ve seen [in our practice matches] but we also saw some positives where we thought ‘geez when this clicks it’s going to be scary’.”
