By Liam Twomey
Some familiar faces will be back at Albion Football Club next season.
The Western Region Football League outfit has signed six returning Cats to its 2016 squad as it looks to climb up division 1 ladder.
Leading the list of inclusions is VFL duo Josh Bench and James Taylor.
Bench, a gun midfielder, has spent the past three years with Williamstown and is a two-time premiership player with the club’s development league side.
Highlighting his credentials as a big-game performer, Bench was named best on ground in the Seagulls’ 2013 premiership win.
Taylor, a medium sized forward, has been on Werribee’s list for the past two years and played 15 games for the club’s development league side.
Albion president Gavan Taylor said the eagerness of players to return to the club was a tick for its junior program.
“Focusing on former Albion juniors is the path we wanted to go down to begin with,” he said.
“We wanted to chase kids who had actually played at Albion and knew what the club was about.
“After getting a couple of these kids back, suddenly everyone is coming back again.
“We work hard with our juniors and we work hard with our kids and it’s good to see they recognise it as well.”
Also coming back to Albion are Jeremy Mills, Hamzah Ali and Jake Savage and former Western Jets representative Kym Taylor.
The signings give the Cats great momentum leading into the pre-season, as they look to bounce back from a disappointing 2015 in which they won one match and finished eighth of nine teams on the ladder.
Albion has also reappointed head coach Aaron Tymms for the 2016 season.
It will be Tymms’ third season in charge at the Cats and he clearly has the best list he has had at the club so far.
“I feel we have been pretty hard on Aaron for the first couple of years,” Taylor said.
“We needed to be able to tell him to go out and recruit who he wanted.
“We’ll try to do everything we can to make sure we can keep the new recruits.”
Tymms was officially recognised for all his hard work at the Cats by being awarded life membership at the club last week.
In a 25-year career at Albion, Tymms played more than 400 games, is a premiership captain and won multiple best and fairests.
