Tara Murray
It’s the signs off the field that are showing that Sunshine is headed in the right direction in the Western Region Football League.
After being relegated to division 2 after finishing bottom of division 1 last season, the Kangaroos have been putting a lot of work in behind the scenes.
New coach Ben Chapman said it was about making sure they were doing everything they could to make it a good place to be.
“The club got relegated and you don’t know what you’re getting,” he said.
“We can’t control what happened. The focus has been to get that one club mentality vibe back.
“On Monday night at training we had 10-15 of the old faithful down at training. Long term supporters who are still coming down, the club is pretty fortunate.”
It will be a different looking line up for the Kangaroos next season. Some players have followed former coach Heath Scotland to Deer Park, while others have departed elsewhere.
Chapman said it opened up plenty of opportunities to get in some new players, many of them familiar faces.
“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.”
Dylan Payne, Nick DeLeur, Jordan Rizzardo, Mathew Medcraft, Kyle Frahm, Jarrem Jeffries-Hayes, Josh Abrogar, Austin Rizzardo, Mitchell Bonnici, Buckley Chapman and Mitch Fitzpatrick are some of the Kangaroos recruits.
Chapman said they believe they have the right mix of experience and youth, as they have one eye on the future.
“The youth will hold us in good stead moving forward,” he said. “There’s a real good energy and it makes it easy.
“We’ve got young footballers at the start of their careers who are looking good on the track. How that relates to game day, it will take some time.
“The guys are doing what they need to do.”
The Kangaroos have already resumed pre-season training after the Christmas break. He said they were keen to focus on what they’re doing and see progression throughout the season.
“Everyone is in the same boat at this time of year,” he said. “Until games start, everyone is optimistic.
“We want to be competitive. If we can get improvement, that is our number one focus to get that every week.
“It’s a great club.”
The Kangaroos kick off their season on Good Friday against Albion, one of just two matches in the league that day.
