GREENVALE coach Paul Chapman believes his playing group experienced significant growth in the 2018 Strathmore Community Bank Premier Division season.
Numerous key injuries plagued the Jets throughout the year, including star midfielder Addam Maric and former Bomber, Courtenay Dempsey.
It meant that a total of 38 Jets played senior football during the season.
“I think the maturity of the group has really stepped up,” Chapman said.
“We were forced to play younger guys and with the experience and belief that they got out of playing last year, they’ve come back believing that they’re now senior footballers and knowing they’re senior footballers.
“Right now, it’s actually going to be quite hard to pick a side in Round 1.”
Both Maric (hamstring) and Dempsey (calf) are “on-track” to return to the side, according to Chapman, but expect Maric to line up in a slightly different role this season.
After putting together a stellar 2017 season with 71 goals as a midfielder, Chapman told essendondfl.com.au that his preference for Maric is to spend more time inside forward 50 as he works his way back to peak fitness.
“He’ll play more up forward than he will in the midfield,” Chapman explained.
“I’m not saying he won’t play midfield time but hopefully, he’ll do his business up forward more.
“We just want him to try and get through and be better for playing games.”
As has been the case since Chapman joined Greenvale at the end of 2016, the Jets weren’t too active in the transfers market over the summer.
Quality key defender Tom Cleary is the current headliner among their few recruits, but the transfer saga between the Jets and Maribyrnong Park for the services of star midfielder Zac Keogh remains ongoing.
Keogh, the 2017 Reynolds Medallist, has trained with Greenvale all summer, but Maribyrnong Park has not budged in allowing him to be cleared to Section Road.
Chapman remains unsure how the transfer request will be settled but is pretty certain about one thing.
“I’m pretty confident we’ll hit Round 1 with our full list,” he said.
“We believe that if we play our best footy that we can compete and be there with every team.
“The reason the list hasn’t turned over too much is because a lot of these guys are local players and the ability of these players to play local football is quite incredible, really.
“They have pretty high expectations of themselves and now, collectively as a group, they actually have high expectations and they expect that they’re going to play our brand of footy every week.”
RECRUITING
In: Tom Cleary (defender, Williamstown), Zac Keogh* (midfielder, Maribyrnong Park) & Tallan Wright (forward, Hepburn)
Out: Daniel Burns (retired), Jayden Ranno (Airport West) & Dean Smith (Powelltown)
*Transfer pending
2019 DRAW
