Pub Talk – William Buck Premier Season Preview

Andrew Leonard

@Lennytalk

Welcome to the 2015 William Buck Premier season! This year feels different and it’s not just that we welcome William Buck as the proud naming rights partner to Premier Section. I mean on the football field, where the discussion on the merits and pitfalls of each team has been taking place across Melbourne in between in-swinging thunderbolts from Mitch Starc in the World Cup at pubs and BBQs around the city. At this stage of the year, everyone is equal. Time for talk and rumours to be cast aside and replaced by hard evidence. Is that summer signing the saviour or will they be the poster child for another false dawn.

With all the marketing spiel done, let’s concentrate on the footy. How on earth do you pick a final four in William Buck Premier? This has been the pattern all summer for me. Blacks? Tick, reigning premiers, almost the same squad. But what about the new coach you say? Well Roberts was new last year and look what happened, another internal appointment sees Luke O’Connell assume top mantle at Blacks and he knows how to win a premiership too, having coached the Blacks Premier B Reserve flag in 2012. Yes, Blacks are in.

St Bernards? They did lose in straight sets and fell away towards the end of last year you say? Well they also spent most of the year beating their opponents at will, all the while learning a new game plan under Anthony Rock. Rock is in his second year and remember their U19s won the U19 Premier flag and all other teams played finals. The Snowdogs ooze depth and they will be hurting from last year. Yes, the Bernies are in.

Collegians fluked it to a Grand Final you say? Right form at the right time? Well that might be, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone at the Lions who thinks they won’t be better this time around. Yes they may have made it to a Grand Final when not expected to, but they did it with a bunch of youngsters who have just had another pre-season under their belt. Oh, and Simon Arnott is back in the coaching team, remember him? Yes he and Hibbo coached back to back flags only a couple of seasons ago. Collegians, yep can’t leave them out.

Old Trinity had a year from the clouds and they still didn’t make it so what chance have they got, you say? Well they did have two of the best players in the comp last year in Brendan Iezzi and Harry Tinney (who incidently were both in the best three on the ground in the VAFA’s win over Northern last week). They are also one of the few sides that don’t suffer losing players to VFL each week. They regularly played 4-6 under 19 players in their senior side and their Unders also won the section 2 flag. The T’s will only get better and by my reckoning that puts them in.

De La Salle were the worst side to stay up in Premier since LA Adamson introduced promotion and relegation in the 1920’s you say? This might be true, but the club has seen the return of a whole team of players. Paul Satterly is one of the premier coaches in the game, not just in the VAFA and this year he will be forced to leave good players out of his 22 each Thursday night. Yes, yes we know they are small, but gee they move the ball fast don’t they. De La to make it? Surely not, but they just might you know.

Hey but you have left out the best side to win Premier B in the past decade you say? Well Uni Blues were certainly impressive but didn’t they go down with essentially the same list they are back up with? So what, so did Old Trinity and look how they fared. Blues are better. More run, and they welcome back Dan Nicholson, Ross Young and plus a couple of others from Gold Coast Suns. They have learnt again how to win and how to win well. Ruthless in attack plus about five of their players have had the benefit of a VFL preseason too. They simply must be in the four.

What of Old Carey, Old Xaverians, Old Scotch and Beaumaris you say? A case can be made for each. Beaumaris played some of the most daring and exciting football of the past two seasons. Unfortunately for them, they seem only able to do so in April and maybe the first week of May. The Sharks have had a taste of Premier, but now they need to actually take a bite. By the end of Round 1 this week, Beaumaris players will have heard a message from five coaches in 37 games at this level. Stability is the word and early wins have kept them safe in two seasons to date, the feeling is they will need that again in 2015.

Old Xaverians too will have had five coaches in the past 37 games come the end of Round 1. Albeit co-coaches are amongst their groupings. It is hard to get better when three of the best ten players in the competition leave the club. A lot of players were tried last year. However, despite almost every Xavier College boy that exits year 12 signing to play at the Old Xavs, the fact is the school hasn’t won a flag since 2003. They should still improve though and have you heard of a bloke by the name of Luke Ball? Well, he has been training too.

Old Scotch have been the Jekyll and Hyde side of the past few seasons. Brilliant one week, off the pace the next. They have some of their top sheld and they have also lost a 50 goal forward as Passador moves from the goal square to the magnet board. Passador though has been groomed for this role and the Cardinals best players are very, very good. Losing finalists for three years the Cardinals are no slouches in recent times and find ways to win games you don’t think they will.

Finally Old Carey. The club everyone seems to like having in Premier, but beyond their best half dozen players don’t give much credit to their onfield potential. That’s probably right, as their 2013 annus horribilis in Premier is the last memory. However they became just the second side in 90 seasons of VAFA football to bounce back with the other relegated side at the same time. Yes they rely on their best, but what club doesn’t want their best players playing well? Whilst most have them struggling, the club has recruited well. Finalists? Probably not, but they certainly won’t be the easy beats of 2013.

So you see therein lies the problem. Ten doesn’t go into four and whilst there are reservations about four sides, you certainly can’t say with certainty that they will be the bottom four. On reflection, last year (unless you were Blacks) felt like a poor year, 2015 feels like it could be one of the greatest yet.

Tips:

Uni Blacks v Old Scotch

Old Trinity v St Bernards

Old Xaverians v Collegians

Beaumaris v Old Carey

De La Salle v Uni Blues