Anglesea enjoyed a successful recruiting campaign and is now setting its sights of finals football for the first time under Jordan Keras.
ANGLESEA coach Jordan Keras has declared the new-look Roos are bound for finals in 2023.
The Roos finished seventh in the BFL after winning just six games, but a busy off-season has the club setting its sights on September action.
Keras said the Roos had a deliberate recruiting strategy ahead of the 2023 season.
“I’d be disappointed if we didn’t make finals this year, I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t the goal,” he said.
“We’re going to have a pretty new team but we’ve brought in a lot of guys with a lot of talent, so we’re expecting that, to make finals as well.
“Last year we had a bit of trouble from a points perspective, but we don’t actually have a points issue this year anymore, our best 22 on paper sits one point under the threshold.
“There won’t be any excuses from that side of things, it helps that we’ve picked up really good junior players for our club that wanted to come back.
“We’ve recruited six or seven guys that are one pointers that will also be in our best team.”
“That was the ideal scenario, to get the best Anglesea juniors back to the club makes a massive difference for a club like us, that was the ultimate goal and we’ve just about nailed that.”
The Roos brought back two-time GFL premiership winner Josh Jaska from St Mary’s, while Harrison Veale, Jack Walters and Jack Rice have also returned to Anglesea.
Keras said the further recruitment of Jack Baker would also come as a one-point player.
“We really lucked out on Jack (Baker) being one point because he hasn’t played footy for three years,” he said.
“But he brings a really competitive edge to the group, he was one of the country’s best ironman athletes in the past few years and you can see that in his professionalism around training.
“He’s easily the fittest bloke going around, he’ll run around all day and be the fittest in the competition, so we were lucky he was keen to get back into footy.
“Jack played up in Gisborne, they’ve always been a really competitive side as well and pretty successful, and you can see that successful mindset really shining at training.”
Originally published as Anglesea coach Jordan Keras declares finals a certainty in 2023 after successful recruiting campaign
