By LIAM TWOMEY
MAKE no mistake about it, Werribee Districts haven’t crossed over to the Western Region Football League to make up the numbers.
The Tigers have set their sights on going toe-to-toe with the best the league has to offer and coming out on top.
Although Werribee president Rod Harrington knows that may not happen overnight, he and his committee have been busy putting the building blocks in place to ensure the Tigers’ climb up the ladder starts now.
“We haven’t made this move just to be middle of the table,” Harrington said.
“People in our club, we have a competitive streak and competitive nature. We are not looking to go to the WRFL just to make up numbers. We want to be the best.
“(In our first year) we would like to think we are going to be competitive. I’ve said all along that we don’t know what to expect but I think the other side of the coin is that the other sides in the competition don’t know what to expect of us.”
With the bounce of the ball for round one under two months away, Werribee has pulled off a recruiting coup, welcoming former Geelong and Essendon midfielder Brent Prismall to the club.
Prismall played his junior football at Werribee Districts and will balance playing for the club around his VFL commitments with Footscray.
He will be joined at Soldiers Reserve by former Werribee VFL best-and-fairest winner Ben Sharp who is another marquee signing.
“Brent was one of the players who played all his junior footy with us so this will be a bit of a homecoming,” Harrington said.
“He is a fantastic representative of the club and a good citizen and we are rapt that he is going to come back and play.
“It is great to have Ben Sharp on board as well.
“He won Werribee’s best and fairest a couple of years ago and was on the West Coast Eagles list for a couple of years.”
After climbing the ranks of the Victorian Amateur Football Association, Werribee’s progress was halted by continual recruiting raids from rival clubs that did not have to contend with amateur sport restrictions.
But in good news for the future, The Tigers’ young guns will be staying put with all members of the 2013 playing list returning this season.
“Our number one priority (during the off-season) was to retain the players we had on our list,” Harrington said about the club’s recruiting strategy.
“We are happy to report that every single player from the senior ranks from last year is staying. After having, in the previous two years, between 50 and 60 players leave, to be able to retain all of our guys is fantastic.
“Our second goal was to get some of our players back and when I say our players, I mean guys who were at our club and for various reasons, went elsewhere. While we haven’t been able to get every single one back, because it was going to be financially impossible, we have started to turn the tide and we have been able to get a number of guys back.”
Some of the players returning to Werribee this season will be Tate and Shaun McCutcheon as well as Brent Morrow.
With the season kicking off in early April, excitement is building both at Werribee and around the league, ahead of the club’s return to the WRFL.
The Tigers will begin their 2014 campaign against Hoppers Crossing in a night match at Chirnside Park in what is expected to have a finals like crowd and atmosphere.
The match will also see new Werribee coach Wade Chapman go head-to-head with new Hoppers Crossing coach Steve Kretiuk.
After being in the top job for a few months now, Chapman is happy with the way the playing list is progressing through the pre-season.
“It has been very encouraging,” Chapman said.
“The numbers have been good and we are averaging 45 for each session. We had 12 sessions before Christmas and started back on the 20th of January.
“We had a fitness test before and after Christmas and 75 per cent of the guys bettered their times for the 3km time-trial.
“We have trained really hard and we are going to be fit. We still have some hard work to do and we are quietly confident that we will be competitive. Being our first year back in, it is a bit of an unknown too.”
