Melton South has no fear heading into the Ballarat Football League season.
In fact, head coach Mark Pedersen requested that his side play reigning premiers Darley for the first match of the year.
The club was originally scheduled to take on Melton to start its season, but Pedersen saw an opportunity to put his young group on the big stage, and he jumped at it.
“We were supposed to play Melton first up. I looked at the fixture and saw that the reigning premiers weren’t going to unfurl their flag until round three,” he said.
“I thought this would be an opportunity for us to play on the big stage. The club hasn’t done that for a long time.
“Why not play against the best in round one and then you will know exactly where you sit.
“I think it’s good for footy as well. It’s a stand-alone game and I think there will be a lot of excitement there,” Pedersen said.
The Panthers have been quietly going about business in the off season, looking to improve after a tough 2015 season in which they won just two games and finished the year 10th on the ladder.
The club is hoping short-term pain will lead to some long-term gain.
Week in, week out last year, the Panthers were one of the youngest teams in the competition after throwing support behind a youth push.
Pedersen said a key goal for his coaching panel in the off season was to retain that young core.
“What we did last year was actually have a clean-out,” he said.
“By the time I got to the club, it was very late to recruit. It was a real challenge to take a club, not just a team but a club, and try to take them to the next level. We played a lot of kids. We probably played 12 under-18s every week.
“They will benefit from that experience this year.”
As well as their young stars, Melton has brought in some experience to try to help out this year.
The Panthers signed brothers Benjamin and Mark Sortino, as well as ruckman Blake Henderson. All three have VFL experience at Coburg.
They will be joined by Tom Stoneham, a big man from the Essendon District Football League.
Rounding out the club’s signings is Nick Wilson from the Northern Football League.
“We’ve got a bit of height now that we didn’t have last year,” Pedersen says.
“We believe we’ve recruited the right sort of person for our club. The culture is very important here and we want people to come for the right reasons.
“We’re not trying to buy players; we are trying to sell our club to our recruits.”
