Former North Melbourne and Geelong player Aaron Black has been confirmed as the first major signing by 2026 Bellarine League entrant Surf Coast Suns.
Speculation has been rife for months that Black, who played 50 games for the Roos and seven for the Cats, would pull on a Suns jumper in their inaugural year.
Surf Coast football president Jay Williams confirmed the 34-year-old’s signing on K rock Football’s Beyond the Boundary podcast.
“I’ve been speaking with Aaron for over 12 months now and know that he’s a local to Torquay with his kids here and his son’s going to be playing under nine footy next year with us,” Williamsa said.
“One of his big things in his life was to play at the same club as his son.
“So to have him come across not just to play and help out with operations and bits and pieces, he’s actually going to be a Suns person, not just someone that we’re bringing in at the name that is going to get us help, get us off the ground and then who knows.
“He’s going to be there as a Suns person, which I think is a really important part of the story.”
Since being delisted at the end of 2018, Black has played VFL with the Cats, where he remains operations manager, spent a season with rival BFNL club Modewarre, and has most recently made cameo appearances with Warrnambool in the Hampden League.
Williams also confirmed highly-credentialled former Carlton player Ross Young will pull on a Surf Coast jumper.
Young made six appearances for the Blues in 2007 after being listed as a rookie from their VFL affiliate Northern Blues.
He also played VFL with Richmond, captaining the Tigers and winning a best-and-fairest, and WAFL with Perth, winning the Sandover Medal in 2009 and representing Western Australia.
Young also won the Woodrow Medal as the best-and-fairest in VAFA Premier during his second stint with Uni Blues and played in a premiership under current Queenscliff coach Heath Jamieson.
“He’s a bit older, but he’s a Suns person; both of his boys are playing juniors,” Williams said.
“He’s very keen to help out and pull the boots on, whether that’s twos or ones, to see how his body holds up.
“He’s a genuine local footy star. I’m sure he could slip into the ones at some stage.”
Less than 12 months out from its BFNL debut, Surf Coast has also had confirmation from AFL Victoria that it will have a points cap of 60, with the salary cap to land at around $110,000.
Williams conceded that the Suns were hoping for more points to help build their list.
“But 60, I think, is going to give us some platform to try and bring in enough talented players and experienced players to at least compete,” he said. “We had to fight pretty hard for that.
“To get that announcement from the league and confirmation from AFL Victoria was a big result.
“That’s given us some confidence, and our salary cap’s a bit higher than what is, I think, on offer for ’26.
“I don’t know if they’re changing it or not, but I think we’ve got an extra $20,000 or $30,000 there possibly that we can pay.
“Not saying that we will, but we’ve got the ability to if we can.”
Also high on Surf Coast’s agenda is the development of its facilities at Banyul-Warri fields.
Liberal candidate for Corangamite, Darcy Dunstan, pledged $3.4m for a new pavilion if the Coalition had won this month’s Federal Election.
However, sitting member Libby Coker did not commit to an upgrade.
“I’ve been working with Brodie Marston – he’s our footy manager,” Williams said.
“He’s helped me design the new pavilion and change rooms that have been advertised and Darcy committed to.
“Previous to that, I did go to Libby’s side this time last year and before and pitched it and checked in a few times and whatever and just probably didn’t get the same enthusiasm or buy-in as Darcy had.
“The effort’s been there with Libby. We had her in just before the election to go over it one more time, and I’m sure that she would like to see it happen, but she probably had other commitments that she needed to commit to, and that’s fine.”
Williams says discussions are now underway with Surf Coast Shire about taking ownership of the current facility.
“Grant Pavilion, which is actually a really good facility upstairs,” he said.
“It’s got a big commercial kitchen and a bar, and we’ve got four spaces that can seat 200 people now that we’ve been given ownership of during the footy season, and then the cricket club takes it over in the summer.”
“But they’re slowly but surely releasing that to us as a bit of a sports hub.
“It’s probably more about some extra change rooms we need in the future to be a bit more sustainable in terms of servicing netball and football at the same time.
“And having the two ovals there, we probably need, you know, four change rooms available at any given time if we’ve got two games that are hosting (under)-16s or 14s and over.
“But in the interim, we definitely have what we need, and I’ll be going to state government for the next election (in late 2026) to pitch to them too and keep pushing ahead with the proposal.”
X: @krockfootball
