Oliver Lees
The Sunbury Kangaroos will line up in some big early season contests in division one of the Essendon District Football League next year.
The release of the EDFL’s 2022 season fixture earlier this month has confirmed that the Kangaroos will travel to Hillside to play the Sharks on Good Friday in round two of the season.
That contest will be followed by another major clash In round three, when the Kangaroos will host rivals Rupertswood at Eric Boardman Reserve on the weekend before Anzac Day.
Kangaroos coach Leigh Sporle said his side was looking forward to running out in front of a big crowd once again, after two seasons that were majorly impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.
“Good old Rupo, it’s a shame we didn’t get to play them in the night match [last season] because it didn’t go ahead… we’re definitely looking forward to playing them again,” he said.
“Last year it was really hard to try to organise events and functions, hopefully this year we don’t have that again.”
The Kangaroos battled through a shortened 2021 campaign with a young list of players, finishing the season with three wins and eight losses.
Sporle’s side were able to drag themselves across the line in their Anzac Day eve match against Rupo, managing to hold off their cross town rivals by three points.
Rupo finished the season in ninth spot, one game behind the Kangaroos.
Sporle said he was encouraged by the effort of his team in 2021 despite finishing in the bottom half of the ladder.
“You look at the win-loss on paper and it doesn’t look great, but there were only two games where we probably got beaten pretty convincingly, the other games we were right in the game,” he said.
“I think one game we had a look at the team and we had 16 players with under 30 games [experience], there wouldn’t be too many clubs doing that.”
Over the offseason Sporle said the club had been busy, confirming the return of some of his reliable veterans along with a string of new faces.
Former Gold Coast Suns academy player Fitzroy Greenwool has committed to the club for 2022 and will split his time between Sunbury and his commitments with Sandringham in the VFL.
The Kangaroos have also been bolstered by the signing of small forward Bradwell Dick, who after playing in the Northern Territory and Queensland for most of his senior football, moved down to Melbourne to join the Northern Saints in 2019.
Former Kangaroos premiership players Tierone Cuffe and Matthew Welsh will also run out for Sunbury in 2022.
Sunbury will kick off its campaign 2022 on Saturday, April 2, with an away fixture against Tullamarine.
