Tara Murray
Hillside will take plenty of positives out of the Essendon District Football League division 1 season.
The Sharks’ season officially came to an end last week, with the latest lockdown ending the regular season.
The Sharks finished seventh in their first season under Charlie Denaro.
The club announced that Denaro had been appointed as coach for another season.
Denaro said they had worked through a few things in recent weeks, allowing him to put pen to paper.
“Like most clubs who aren’t going into finals, it has been hard to stay involved and keep the momentum going,” he said.
“It was a bit evident that we weren’t going to play again. We wanted to get moving forward and put a few more things in place for next year.
“I’m excited for next year.”
This year was a different season for the Sharks that have been up with the contenders the last few years.
With the departure of a number of key players, including Brandon Coletta, Lachie Rayner and Victor Micallef, the club decided to take stock and head in a different direction.
Denaro said the impact of former coach Steve Burns leaving couldn’t be underestimated either.
“It was a big change, he had been there for five years and when we lost a couple of key players,” he said.
“The club took stock and reassessed how we would go forward and it was an opportunity to put a lot of time into the kids.
“We moved on some of the more experienced guys and we got as much game time as we could into the younger players.
“We played some good football and were really competitive, but we fell away towards the end of the year.”
Bailey Ryan, Mitchelle Hearne, Jaksyn Grant and Tristian Rudic were four of the youngsters who impressed.
Denaro said there were lots of positives out of the season, with the side able to match it against the top sides for periods.
A win against finalist Westmeadows was the standout performance. He said the key moving forward was putting it together for four quarters.
As well as locking in Denaro, the Sharks have been busy signing a number of their young guns for next season.
“We’ve retained everyone we wanted to and we’ve got a couple of nice signings we’ll announce soon,” Denaro said.
“We’re in a really good position and we’ll look to bring in some experienced players. We’ll look to build up our ruck stocks, bring in a spine and a bit more class.”
East Keilor, Tullamarine, Airport West and Westmeadows will play division 1 finals.
