The early signs are positive for Romsey heading into season two under coach Justin Sherman.
After winning its first Riddell District Football League finals since 2015, the club has managed to retain all of its 2023 players, while also strengthening its list with external talent.
Ethan Beer, Aaron Flavel, Connor Bills, Oscar Schoor and Ash Millane have all joined the Redbacks.
“Our loyalty to the club and our culture is first class and I think at the end of the day if you can keep your culture strong and you can keep everyone together it sets you up for future success down the track,” Sherman said.
“We’ve been able to do that really well and on top of that we’ve been able to bring in some guys that we felt like we needed, in terms of position wise and they’ve really filled a void for us.
“So far those new guys have had a real impact on the group as well. The way that they’ve put their best foot forward has been really impressive and we’re just looking forward to seeing how they gel within the team.”
The Redbacks have enjoyed a long summer break after a hectic 2023, ending in a heartbreaking, three point semi final loss to Woodend-Hesket. They resume training this week.
“Last year it was all crammed in with a new coach, a new system,” Sherman said. “So this year we wanted to take a more careful approach and give the guys a bit of extra break.
“That way we get all the holiday period out of the way and then we can come back and really get motoring into the practice games.
“We’re as excited as you can be at this time of year, we’re just looking forward to putting a good month of training down now and looking forward from March 2 onwards when we start practice games.”
Sherman said it’s important to build on the successes of last season and to do that consistency is the key for the Redbacks.
“I’ve been in the caper for a while now but you can never stop learning and growing and becoming better individually and as a team as well,” he said.
“Our goal is to go as deep into finals as we can… We’re under no illusion that we just want to control what we can, we can’t look outside the four walls, we just need to concentrate on the personnel we have and the system that we want to play and from our point of view if we get that right the majority of the time we know we’re a good side.
“We’ve just got to close that gap between what our best looks like and what our worst looks like and if we can meet somewhere near the middle or above I think we’re going to be a pretty solid team to play against this year.”
