By Jonty Ralphsmith
Springvale Districts comfortably accounted for Keysborough in both clubs’ final tune up ahead of round one in two weeks’ time.
Playing shortened quarters, Southern Division Two club Keysborough was outclassed and unable to match it with Springvale Districts.
Division One Club Springvale Districts will this season be looking to build on the eight wins they picked up last season and take the next step towards finals footy.
The Demons have brought in several players from East Gippsland, including Liam Giove, Mitch Dewar, Xavier Woodland, Ryan Auld and more.
Naturally, given the result, there were a slew of standouts for the Dees who were missing a host of walk-up starts.
Garfield’s 2021 Best and Fairest Daniel Helmore and hard inside-midfielder Giove were among the better players.
Meanwhile, Matt Wetering, who returns to Springvale Districts full time after playing some footy for Collingwood VFL last year as a pack-crasher and goal-kicker, had his first run around of 2023.
Ex-AFL listed Tyrone Vickery, who will be limited in the number of games he can play, was missing, as were defenders Drew Stockton and Dewar, hard midfielder Peter Heng, winger Matt Thompson, the athletic Shakor Bragg-Taylor and more.
Springvale Districts, which starts its season away against Mordialloc, will be led by Mason Russell for the second consecutive season.
They will go at it in 2023 with a new look midfield, backing in playing-assistant coach Dylan Quirk to gel with Giove and Nick Gay who has come across from Endeavour Hills in 2023.
Jason Ward and Toby Arms are the young players to watch for, with 19-year-old Ward doing a VFL preseason at Frankston and winger-forward Arms’ leadership catching the eye.
For Keysborough, the focus this season will be ensuring seasoned veterans such as backline playing-coach Anthony Brannan – who did not play on Saturday – are managed throughout the season so they can peak later on.
Brannan played every game last season but did not produce his best footy in September as a result of their reliance on him during the home-and-away season.
Another watch for Keysborough will be how they offset the loss of goalkicker Matt Carnelley, who has retired – though Tom Shaw has been retained which will help.
Cooper Shephard was the standout on a difficult Saturday for Keysborough.
The recruit from Pakenham has worked hard in preseason and was brought in to play as a powerful running forward, a role he performed well on the weekend.
Keysborough has also brought back former junior Matt Collett who offers tidy ball use, while Brenton Wells comes in from Pakenham as playing forwards coach who is lightning quick.
Combined with the experience, the club hopes youngsters such as Simon Marchese and Dylan Webb can propel Keysborough to the next level.
Marchese is laser-focused on his footy, completing a preseason at Casey before slotting back in at Rowley Allan Reserve.
The view is for him to be a running half-back and he has worked closely with Brannan, a smart player who sees the game well himself, to reach his potential.
Webb plays a similar position, using his running capacity and aptitude one-on-one to impact games.
Keysborough’s season starts at home against Highett.
