IT MAY be the early stages of the off-season but Williamstown is already sprinting towards 2014.
Just days after announcing Andrew Collins will be the club’s new senior coach, the Seagulls signed a whopping 29 players for next year.
The list included the top five place-getters in the club’s 2013 best-and-fairest, (Cameron Lockwood, Ben Jolley, William Wheeler, Anton Woods and Ed Carr) as well as 13 of the 15 VFL-listed players who played in the club’s last finals game against Geelong.
Williamstown also signed 13 of the 22 VFL-listed players who played in the Development League premiership.
However, the good news may not stop there with the club “extremely optimistic” of securing more young talent in the next couple of weeks.
“We’ve been delighted with the response from the playing group, “Williamstown football manager Chris Dixon said.
“They are all excited about the guarantee of 23 seniors spots available each week. A few of them have been approached by AFL clubs with stand-alone VFL sides but it’s great that these players see Williamstown as the best place for their development going forward.
“The fact we had three players drafted last year from our system (Jack Frost, Brett Goodes and Dane Rampe) also emphasises that we want to combine the aim of winning games with also assisting players to be drafted into the AFL.”
The club’s only significant departure to date is Stephen Witkowski who is travelling and studying overseas in 2014.
Dixon said Williamstown was looking forward to announcing some of its new recruits in coming weeks.
“We’re really excited about some of the top end talent we’re going to bring in,” he said.
“We’ve been pretty selective in our recruiting in line with our list management model, and have been extremely specific in trying to target particular players for our needs. I think it will be obvious that we’ve put a lot of energy into bringing in the right type of player, rather than having a scattergun approach to recruiting.
“We have planned this strategy for the last 12 months after our club decided to end the alignment with the Western Bulldogs and we are genuinely excited about how our list is shaping for 2014.”
