Sunshine’s hopes in the Western Region Football League division 2 competition have been boosted by two late signings.
Having locked in a number of younger players who had returned to the club, new Kangaroos coach Ben Chapman thought their recruiting was done.
But things changed last week, with former Spotswood premiership pair Murray Boyd and Wayne Patak committing to the club.
Chapman said the two signings were a bonus after a busy off season.
“We weren’t thinking about them coming on board a month ago,” he said.
“Through friends of friends they started talking and decided to come down to training last night [Monday] and committed.
“To get players of that calibre is really big for the club.”
Patak played with Woodend-Hesket since leaving Spotswood, while Boyd has had the last few years off.
Chapman said the two were keen to play together again.
“They played a lot of football at Spotswood,” he said. “Wayne reached out and asked Murray if he would be interested and he liked what he saw.”
Chapman said both were in fantastic condition and were experienced enough to know how to handle the late start to pre-season.
Chapman said adding those two and the likes of Mathew Medcraft, who have premiership winning experience at higher levels was exactly what they needed.
“Early targets for us were the younger players,” he said. “We’ve got those three guys relatively late.
“They all have premiership experience and leadership qualities. It will be beneficial for the young group.”
Chapman said while they didn’t have any plans to add anyone else, “you never, say never.”
Dylan Payne, Nick DeLeur, Jordan Rizzardo, Kyle Frahm, Jarrem Jeffries-Hayes, Josh Abrogar, Austin Rizzardo, Mitchell Bonnici, Buckley Chapman and Mitch Fitzpatrick are some of the Kangaroos other recruits.
Chapman told Star Weekly late last month that there would be plenty of opportunities for players to step up this season.
“The numbers are great and we’re getting high numbers of quality players which is good,” he said.
“We’ve been able to bring in a fair bit of youth which should hold us in good stead moving forward.
“One of our big focuses was getting Sunshine players back to the club.
“It’s really encouraging that when you go down a division, players want to hang around and we’ve had plenty of players come back too.
“Sunshine guys are seeing that others are coming back, so it’s easier to get them to come back.”
The Kangaroos kick off their season on Good Friday against Albion, one of just two matches in the league that day.
Tara Murray
