Tara Murray
St Albans has added some goalscoring power for next year’s Essendon District Football League division 1 season.
The Saints announced that they had signed Nathan Carroll for next year as they look to improve on making the preliminary final this year.
Carroll played with Sunshine in the Western Football League division 2 competition this year, kicking 113 goals for the season.
He kicked his 100th in the regular season and kicked two goals in the Kangaroos grand final win.
Saints cach Zammy Muhtari said they were excited to get Carroll on board.
He said their new president and had been in contact with Carroll about making the move and they were able to get him over the line.
“It’s something that we never really recruit as a key forward as we’ve been happy with the ones that we’ve had,” he said.
“We wanted more of a lead up forward and he can move up the ground. He can also play at home.”
Carroll is no stranger to the EDFL. In recent years he’s played with the Sunbury Kangaroos and Roxburgh Park both in the division 1 competition.
“He moved away from the league this season and went to the WFL,” Muhtari said. “He wanted to get back into the EDFL and get a fresh start.”
Carroll is one of four new signings announced for the Saints so far as they head into their third season in the competition.
Brock Heathcote is another who is no stranger to the league.
The forward-mid played at Westmeadows and Roxburgh Park.
Muhtari said Heathcote and Carroll were mates and were keen to play together again.
Heathcote has had a couple of years off footy and keen to get back on the field.
East Keilor’s Leon Bektash is the other signing announced so far.
The club said he was keen to play some consistent senior football. He played nine premier division games this season, along with six reserves games.
The latest signing is Mua Tavo.
After his time in the Coates Talent League with the Calder Cannons, Mua has competed in back-to back premier division under-18.5 grand finals for Pascoe Vale.
He had a successful 2024 as captain winning the club’s best and fairest and finishing top five in the EDFL’s premier under-18.5 best and fairest..
Mua is currently part of the Essendon AFL education program, where he continues to prosper.
On the other side, the club has lost Victor Micallef (Wallan), Brodie Lyons-Jones (Parkside) and Ade Akintola (PEGS) are all departing the club.
Muthari said they were talking to a few other players and were hoping to have some more signings soon.
“We’ve got an understanding of the league and where we got to this year and it was a good tick.
“We’ll look to compliment with some new recruits.”
