OCEAN Grove could field only a handful of players from the senior team that took to the field late in the 2019 season to open 2021.
A combination of departures, recruits and graduates from its under-19 premiership team will make the Grubbers barely recognisable to the casual BFL fan come the Round 1 clash with Torquay on Good Friday.
“I looked at our side from 2019 – one of the final games, and there’s going to be probably 4-5 players playing Round 1 from that side,” coach Pete Davey told K rock Football’s Coaches Catch-up.
“There’s going to be a lot of new faces. A lot of them are young – under 20 – and the others will be between that 20-23 mark, with a few older ones.”
Davey concedes the points cap will be a factor at selection, with Ocean Grove capped at 40.
“We identified what we wanted to go after this pre-season, and we’ve done that,” he said.
“The downside is that you’ve goto squeeze all these three-pointers into 40 points.
“We were really upfront with players and said, “this is going to be the situation. We don’t want to hold you back from playing senior footy elsewhere, but know you’re going to be competing against guys for a spot.”
Of Ocean Grove’s seven additions, Glenn Campbell and Jack Rawlings return to the club and are one-pointers.
However, Will Brohm (North Bendigo), Bailey Cameron (Traralgon), Riley Hogarth (Banyule), Tom Waters (UHS-VU VAFA), and Josh Wooding (Uni Blacks) will carry at least three points.
Meanwhile, after just eight senior games for the club, Jake Wilkie has been appointed captain of the Grubbers.
“Jake came from Ballan, where he was skipper,” Davey said.
“Jake’s a school teacher – actually, our whole leadership group are all school teachers, which is no surprise.
“He speaks really well to the group.”
Ocean Grove has its final practice match against Ballarat league club Melton South at Ray Menzies Oval on Saturday.
Twitter: @tom_king79
