Tara Murray
Springs Hills will focus on youth this season in the FV state league 4 west.
After a tough couple season, the Stallions are looking to start building and cementing their spot in that division.
The Stallions were sitting bottom without a win when the season came to an early end due to the pandemic.
Stallions president Tom Markovski they were looking forward to this season.
“The men’s team will be a lot better. We have a lot of young local players who are coming across.
“We have an experienced coach who has coached in the NPL [National Premier League] and is a teacher, which is even better.”
New coach John McAloon comes to the club having been a coach at Melbourne Knights, Hume City and Preston Lions.
McAloon is keen to work with the young players and help them progress.
Markovski said they were keen to make the team a place that local players can go to when they’re ready to reach that level.
“At this level you get older players who want a bit of money to play in this division,” he said. “We’ve said we’re not interested in that.
“We’ve started to look local. We want junior players playing senior football.
“Players who have been at the club for five years are now staying at the club.
“The last two years we have been ordinary, but we’ve right coaches and the right coaching structure in place across all our grades.”
Markovski said the pandemic had also had an impact on the women’s program, which has been their strength.
Markovski, who is the coach of the club’s state league 1 women’s side, said they were continuing to look to strengthen that side.
“The last two years have put us back,” he said. “NPL clubs have been trying to recruit our players. We’ve got girls in our teams who started in under-10s.
“We have a team in state league 1 with seniors and reserves.
“Our state league 2 side were 15 points clear on top. They would have been promoted into state league 1 if the season had continued.
“We are hoping to have a third senior sides in the future.”
Tara Murray
