AVONDALE Heights coach Donald McDonald is preaching patience at Canning Street.
The Heights have not played finals footy since 2014 and with numerous experienced players leaving over the summer, McDonald has all but conceded 2018 is about consolidation.
“It’s probably one of those years where it’s back to ground zero,” he told essendondfl.com.au.
“We need to identify some blokes in their early twenties that can stay at the club for five or six years.
“If you look at a Maribyrnong Park, maybe we are where they were at three or four years ago, and we’ve got to get this current group of blokes to come through together and add one or two more to go along, but it’s a two or three-year thing.
“We’ve got a bit of work to do.”
Plenty of experience has left the club but McDonald did attract some quality to come in, with ex-Blues Dennis Armfield and Ciaran Sheehan joining returning big man Nathan Byrne as key new recruits.
McDonald says that trio, among others, are going to play an important role in helping re-establish some stability for a club that has had a turbulent couple of years.
“No doubt Dennis Armfield and Ciaran Sheehan are going to provide really good leadership, but the experience we’ve lost is going to be very difficult to replace,” McDonald said.
“So it’s going to have to be a real collective effort, but I suppose on the other side of that, I didn’t really get a chance to coach this team in the pre-season last year.
“Hopefully we’re going to be pretty competitive and having a pre-season together, we’ll all be on the same page.
“They’ve had something like four coaches in three years and they’ve had an enormous amount of instability, so I think our focus this year is just more about getting some stability, staying in the top flight and then just really looking to recruit again going forward.”
Spearhead Patrick Rose is going to be a huge loss.
The three-time EDFL interleague rep accounted for more than 30 per cent of all Avondale Heights goals in 2017.
McDonald is keen to increase his goal-kicking options, but admits his forward structure is still a work in progress.
“It’s going to be interesting… I don’t think at this stage we have anyone that’s really earmarked as a genuine full forward,” McDonald said.
“I think between Sean Bolger and Nathan Byrne, they’ll be our key targets, but we haven’t replaced Rose.”
Avondale Heights has a very tough start to the season, facing all four 2017 finalists within their first five games.
Key Ins: Dennis Armfield (midfielder, Carlton), Ciaran Sheehan (defender, Carlton), Nathan Byrne (key position, Mangoplah CUE), Domenic Iermano (midfielder, St Bernards), Blake Poyser (defender, Bundoora), Luke McLeod (forward, Warrnambool), Jake Edwards (forward, Portland) & Jordan McIvor-Clark (midfielder/defender, Wilston Grange)
Keys Outs: Patrick Rose (Altona), Matthew O’Dwyer (Anglesea), Angus Durnan (Avenel), Eamon Gilbert (Bundoora), Matthew Chisari (Bacchus Marsh), Matthew Williamson (Sunshine), Ross Celano (Gisborne), Cameron Harris (overseas), Phil Smith (Koondrook Barham), Taylor Jones (Deer Park) & Trent Laverie (Wooden-Hesket)
First Month: Greenvale (away), Maribyrnong Park (home), Aberfeldie (away) & Essendon Doutta Stars (away)
