By Marcus Uhe
The standard has been set for Ben Wise’s Rowville Hawks.
Having shook a long-standing finals-winning drought last season on their way to a breakthrough grand final appearance, Wise now sees playing in September as the minimum of what his young side can deliver.
“Our expectation now is obviously to compete and play the best we can every year, but we want to have finals as a given, and then competing for a premiership is what we strive for and we want to make sure that that’s what we’re doing every year,” Wise said.
But they aren’t looking back.
“Obviously after the disappointment of last year with the way that we finished, it can go one of two ways; blokes can either use it as motivation to come back bigger and stronger and with a lot of our exit meetings, that was the message that we gave them and they’ve come back in really good nick.
“There’s been a lot of personal bests and guys have got bigger and stronger, and with another preseason under their belt for these young guys, they’re only going to get better.”
The time for reflection is over, and 2023 is a new year.
While their rapid ascension to runners-up last year put the competition on notice, Wise himself wasn’t all-that surprised, having sampled what they could deliver in a shortened 2021 season, despite the results (two wins and six losses from eight games) not reflecting their ability.
And with a large majority of his squad still in their early-to-mid 20s, there’s an expectation that the progression that got them to those heights in 2022, will continue to drive them onwards and upwards.
“My squad’s really young, and for those guys to really improve their strength, their body, their speed, their knowledge and get their fitness base higher, if they all collectively do 20 per cent individually then I think, as a group, we’ll get much stronger within anyway,” Wise said.
“So I think that’s where the biggest growth is going to come from, that’s going to come from within.
“Externally we may have over-achieved, but internally I had the belief that we had the talent there to compete at the top and we had the right formulas to compete with the good sides, and we had a lot of talent that people knew nothing about.
“I suppose it did surprise a lot of people around the comp, but for me, I knew what I had and within, we were pretty confident that we would be able to go pretty well, make finals and change the trajectory of where the club’s been.
“Before my time we made finals and hadn’t been able to win one, so to get that monkey off the back and for the boys to be able to see what they can do, I think they’re only scratching the surface, some of these young guys, and I think it lit the flame.”
In order to keep that momentum rolling, Wise is investing in continuity.
The coaching group is remaining largely the same, albeit with adjustments in roles.
In James Gwilt, Wise has his “right hand man” by his side once again, but Andy Scott moves from forwards coach to the midfield, and Matt Davey replaces Alex Frawley’s role as a player-coach.
“They know what we demand and the messages are all the same, I think for the playing group, that’s a positive, and I just like working with the people that we’ve got,” Wise said of his assistants.
“I’ve got great support, they’re great people, good humans, that’s what we want at Rowville.”
The playing group, meanwhile, will be bolstered by the addition of some bigger bodies in the guts.
Jackson McDonald will return to the nest to join forces with his brother Lachlan, while Matthew Martini has made the jump from Burwood, having made an immediate impact in senior footy, finishing second in their best-and-fairest count and named on the ball in the Eastern Football League’s Division Two team of the year.
Lachlan Stapleton, meanwhile, will bring his experience from the VFL with Box Hill and Williamstown, in an addition that has Wise excited.
“Getting (Stapleton) 100 per cent fit is going to be vital for us,” Wise explained.
“He’s been carrying groin problems for the last couple of years and chasing his tail a little bit, but he’s been able to build his body up again to 100 per cent and I’m really looking forward to seeing what he can do this year.”
Walking into a group that fell short on the final day of the year, led by Anthony Brolic, Ali Zijai and Curtis Blakemore, the motivation is spoken for.
And on Saturday 15 April, they’ll come face-to-face with the side that burst the bubble of their golden year; Noble Park.
“That’s why you play footy, isn’t it? You want to play against the best and credit to them, they’ve been a really strong successful side ever since they came into the competition.
“But over the last four or five years they’ve had a really successful playing group that played a lot of footy together and they had great experience throughout with their leaders,” Wise said.
“[We’ll] accept the challenge of whatever’s put in front of [us] but we’re still hunting, we didn’t win it so we’re still the hunter.
“Sides will probably respect us a little bit more, which we set out to get last year, but we’re definitely still the hunter; Noble Park are the ones that are going to have to be worried about and I’m sure that the five or six other sides that finished in the finals or close, are going to be pushing to have a crack as well.”
