Tara Murray
Burnside Heights will reassess and regroup after a disappointing 2021 Essendon District Football League division 2 season.
After a first finals appearance in 2019, the Bears struggled to reach those heights this season, with the latest lockdown ending what small finals chances they had.
Bears president Justin Peagram said they just weren’t able to put it all together on the field.
He said on Thursday, he didn’t expect they would play again this season due to the latest lockdown.
The Bears currently sit in seventh with four wins.
“It’s been a mixed bag,” he said.
“We went into 2020 having signed a number of blokes and with a mixture of covid and not playing football, some wanted to go back to previous clubs and some hung up the boots.
“We then recruited some good young kids, who will be really good in a couple years time but still finding their feet now.
“Every time we got going we would have a bye or a lockdown.
“We can not put our finger on one thing or another. We had a bad year and it’s disappointing.”
Peagram said injuries had taken a toll on the side.
He said there had been 11 or 12 ACL injuries across the club, with five of them in the senior men’s program.
He said combined with soft tissue injuries, they just didn’t have the depth to cover all the holes.
“When our captain Nick Morda went down, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“Against East Sunbury [their most recent game] we just couldn’t run the game out. We had players with injuries who weren’t quite right, but did the right thing by the club.
“We didn’t have the depth to give them an extra week off.”
Peagram said one of the highlights for the club this season was the development of some of their younger players.
He pointed out off season recruits Ferdinando Petrarca and Gabriel Cristiano, along with Bears junior Tyson Iglesias, who had found their feet at senior level and would be important going forward.
Peagram said if they don’t get the opportunity to play again, they would look to get the group together to finish the season properly.
“We need to get over the disappointment and sink our teeth into next season and come back stronger in 2022.”
Aidan Stott is set to coach the side again.
Peagram said while it had been a tough year on field, things were going really well off field. The club’s main oval is being resurfaced and there’s plans to redevelop their second oval.
