ST Albans might have flown under the radar during the summer, but there is nowhere to hide on Good Friday.
The Saints will be firmly in the spotlight on Friday night and coach Ian Denny wouldn’t have it any other way.
Denny’s side will feature in a stand-alone 6.30pm fixture against the much-hyped Hoppers Crossing at Kings Park Reserve to open the Western Region Football League season.
The only other local game on Friday will take place between Keilor and Strathmore in the Essendon District Football League at the earlier 2.15pm start.
Denny expects local football observers to turn Friday into a football feast.
“I think you’ll find a lot of people will go from one ground to the other,” he told the Weekly. “Keilor played Strathmore last year on Good Friday and I went and had a look at that.
“Good Friday is a dead day for everybody who is involved in some sort of sporting commitments, so I saw that as an opportunity for the club to utilise it for the western region.
“We wanted to make it a situation where it becomes a highlight game.”
The Saints will begin their season with two Friday night fixtures. They have first-rate facilities and match standard lights at Gillespie Road, so the thinking was, why not use them?
“I’m trying to set St Albans up where they can get more people to games and it promotes the club,” he said.
With night football comes variables, particularly the prospect of a dewy surface. The Saints train in the evenings and have played some practice games at night to get used to the different conditions.
“Our first two games are under lights, so you want to be prepared for it,” Denny said.
The Saints landed a big fish in the summer.
They welcomed back former Essendon key position player Aaron Henneman, a proven performer at WRFL level.
“He was the premier forward in the competition a couple of years ago till he broke his hand in round 13 or something,” Denny said.
“He’s a strong boy, he’s hard to move and he’s going to be a pretty tough opponent. I look forward to watching him take on the premier players in the competition.”
The two-pronged power forward combination of Henneman and Daniel McKerracher is ready to pose headaches for opposition defences.
McKerracher booted 43 goals last season as the No.1 target and will relish the chance to take on potentially the second-best defender.
But it was clear to Denny what was lacking last year and it was not on the attacking end.
All summer, the Saints have worked on ball retention, due to a high turnover rate costing them dearly on the scoreboard last year.
“We’ve worked hard on disposal and possession,” Denny said. “If you starve the opposition of the ball, there’s every chance they’re not going to score heavily against you.
“We’ve sort of been scored heavily against in the past couple of years, so we’ve shored up our backline a bit and we’ll be a lot harder to score against, we hope.”
The Saints brought in former Rupertswood captain Lachlan Baddeley to shore up the defence.
The club also has the rights to Essendon VFL-listed ruckman Dean Putt when he is not on duty with the Bombers.
Two-time Barry Priest Medal winner Tim Jenkins will captain the Saints.
