The Donnybrook Football Club league side will be a threat in this year’s South West Football League season, according to coach Julian Burgess.
The league side has played an inter-club match and faced off against Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault and Ballajura prior to the SWFL season kick-off.
Burgess praised the efforts of back half players Jacob Kendle and Bradman May in the matches.
“We have got eight or nine new blokes into the side so we are just starting to gel and the more games we play obviously the better we will be,” he said.
“The coaches are all pretty happy, everything we are putting in front of them they’re all sort of buying into it and hopefully the success will come out of the guys buying into it.”
He said the midfield structures the side had worked on in training was paying off in the games.
“The midfield structures that we have been working on in training have been very good and everybody is gelling well, we had a pre-season camp which was pretty good and we’ve done really well,” he said.
Last month, Burgess told the Mail the side was replacing several older team members with a group of newer players who could run games out and win the hard balls.
“The new recruits are fitting into the club really well – they’re really immersing themselves into the club functions and training, coming down from Perth and training with us, so they’re going really well,” he said.
The coach said the side is currently working on function in the forward line ahead of the first SWFL bounce down. The side will play away from home in their first game of the year against Augusta-Margaret River on Saturday, April 15.
”Going down to Margaret River doesn’t hold any problems for us, I know a lot of people sort of say Margs is always a better side down there but I don’t think I’ve lost a game coaching them down there,” he said.
“They did get us in the last game last year, but we’ve won down there so going down there doesn’t hold any fears for us that’s for sure.”
The league side finished the 2016 season in sixth place on the ladder with 28 points, while the reserves finished ninth with 24 points and the colts finished eighth with 16.
