Tara Murray
Hillside is proving a big player early in the Essendon District Football League silly season with a number of new signings already.
Fresh from announcing the reappointment of Charlie Denaro as coach, the Sharks have announced the re-signing of key forward Josh Covelli and that of three new players.
The Sharks have announced that Tullamarine trio Anthony Prestia, Alessio Gobbo and Ryan Lojko are joining the division 1 club.
Denaro said it had been a few busy weeks since their season came to an end.
‘It’s exciting to get a few players over the line already,” he said. “I see Anthony in the top five midfielders in the competition and I’m glad that I’ll have him on my side next year.
“We needed another ruck and Alessio will be fantastic for us.”
“All the boys have been fantastic and are starting to meet the other players.”
Denaro said they had signed another three players, while they were still targeting another player to fit a positional need.
He said all but one player from this year’s list recommitted so far and the boys coming up from the under-18.5 premiership side, the club was in a good place.
Denaro said he was excited to be back on board for next year. The club advertises the role every two years, with Denaro keen to get another shot at coaching the group.
“It was a slow start to this year with a new playing group,” he said. “They came together in the second half of the season.
“The young guys have not played 20 to 25 games of senior footy and are learning to play together.
“Airport West got a hold of us in the last game of the season, but we were really competitive in every game we played.”
Denaro said their back line started to hold up better, while their forward line gelled.
A key to that forward line was Covelli. In his first season at the Sharks, Covelli won the league’s goal kicking award.
Denaro said they were always confident that Covelli would return next season.
“There was a lot of talk about what Josh was doing, but we were always confident as the club is in a good position off field.”
Denaro said they were in a good position heading into pre-season training that starts in five weeks.
He said they would set high expectations for the group.
“We want to finish as high as we can,” he said. “We want to be back in the top four and playing finals.”
