Football
2 April, 2025
Warriors ready for battle in 2025
The past is in the past, and that's where the leaders of the Stawell Warriors Football and Netball Club football side plan on leaving it coming into this season.
The team finished third last year in the regular season and were defeated in the preliminary final by Southern Mallee.
Co-coach Perry Meka is new to the role this season and said his side is looking forward to a fresh start in 2025, completing forgetting about last season.
"We have a list that is both new and young, and we haven't even mentioned last year to be completely honest," Meka said.
"We have changed a lot of things around the club, like the culture, and the boys have got hold of it and they are really buying in to everything we are putting to them."
Andrew Lowe, renowned for being a brilliant goal sneak is a new recruit to the Warriors, along with Charlie Gibson, who will bring versatility and strength, Lachy Holm who will contribute a lot of footy smarts and Paul Summers who is handy up either end of the ground.
The cherry on top is Harry Grintell, a current VFL player.
"We are focusing this year on how we play, as opposed to who we play," Meka said.
"We don't know a lot about Southern Mallee, they change a lot of players over pre-season, and we won't know until we get there, but as for preparation going into the game, we are worrying about our preseason and what we have done."
Meka said the side are concentrating on a brand new game plan, "something they've never had before".
"And we are going to perfect that as much as possible," he said.
"As coaches, both James and I have looked at the squad and said: 'this is what we have, how do we put a game plan together?'.
"And we think we have done okay, the boys have adapted really well,"
Meka is confining his expectations to blocks, and it'll be a challenge from the get-go, as the side faces Ararat and Southern Mallee in two of the first three matches, last year's premiers and runners-up.
"We aren't looking any further than that, and we will know where we are at after that block."