JACANA is not simply focused on staying up in Essendon Ford Division 1 this season.
In fact, the Jags want to become the first club in EDFL history to make the Division 1 finals series the year after gaining promotion from Division 2.
“Our pass mark would be to play finals,” coach Robert Fletcher declared.
“That’s our aim and anything less than that will be a failure.”
Fletcher is pretty blunt about his expectations and after taking a look at their list of inclusions, he probably has every right to aim high.
Jason Cloke, Fletcher’s old mate from his Craigieburn days, comes in as a like-for-like replacement for brother Cameron, while his Parkside premiership team mate Justin Dorward and fellow former Eagle, Josh Young, all headline Jacana’s impressive list of recruits.
The Jags have also retained 18 players from last year’s Division 2 premiership side, including Team of the Year members Billy Morrison, Mick Evans and Justin Colliss.
Therefore, Fletcher is confident his side can handle the step up to Division 1 football but admits some of his younger charges are not yet sure how they’ll individually measure up.
“Our local guys are a little about nervous about whether they’re good enough to play in this division but the guys outside of that, as in the recruits, will have no problem at this level,” Fletcher said.
“They’ve played at higher standards than what we’re going to play this year, so they’ve got no problems with that.”
Fletcher is also aware that his winning formula from last season is not quite going to cut it in a higher division, so he’s decided to scrap a fair chunk of the 2017 game plan.
“We’ve thrown probably 60 per cent of what we used last year out the door and kept about 40 per cent,” he said.
“Last year we probably got away with moving the ball quickly and bombing it long to Cameron Cloke.
“Here they hurt you on turnovers, so that’s why we need to make sure we use the ball a bit better.
“There were patches last year where we butchered the ball but probably got away with it, and that’s why we mainly looked at blokes that use the ball really well and will go through our midfield.”
Jacana will mark its return to the EDFL’s second tier with some blockbuster match-ups early in the season.
Their season-opener will be under Friday night lights at home to local rival, Westmeadows, but the Tigers are not expected to unveil prized recruit Dane Swan that night.
The Jags will then follow up with a trip up to Craigieburn, where Fletcher will coach against his close friend Peter Bugden for the first time, while both Jason Cloke and Josh Young will also face their former club.
That will then be followed by another away game to 2017 runner-up, Airport West.
Key Ins: Jason Cloke (forward, Parkside), Justin Dorward (midfielder, Parkside), Josh Young (midfielder, Craigieburn), Wayne Shultz (midfielder, Castlemaine), Brad Colliss (midfielder, Epping), Kevin Karrasch (forward, Craigieburn) & Ryan Vanderpol (defender, Tullamarine)
Keys Outs: Cameron Cloke (Hurstbridge), Paul Cluney (Reservoir), Justin Cluney (Reservoir), Lane Tucker (Thomastown), Craig Poynter (Reservoir), Dale Keenan (Wallan) & Rhys Brown (Coburg Districts)
First Month: Westmeadows (home), BYE, Craigieburn (away) & Airport West (away)
