HAMILTON Kangaroos onballer Gareth Crawford has become the first major signing at Warrnambool and District league premier Merrivale.
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A desire to play with good mate Joe Woonton lured the 2012 Western Border league best-and-fairest winner to Tigerland for season 2015.
His arrival provides Karl Dwyer’s side with a bigger-bodied onballer, one of only a handful of gaps in a list full of silky skilled ball users.
Small forward Peter Makarona has also headed to Merrivale after stints with South Warrnambool, Heathmere and Timboon Demons in recent years.
Dwyer said he was pleased to secure the Hampden league pair.
Crawford helped Old Collegians to the 2011 grand final and has played with Hamilton and the newly-formed Hamilton Kangaroos the past three seasons.
“There’s a connection there with Joe Woonton. He is good mates with Joe; they go back a fair way,” Dwyer said.
“He’s pretty keen to have a kick with Joey. That was his number one motivation.
“He’s a bigger-bodied midfielder. It’s something we haven’t had in the past. He certainly ticks that box.”
Makarona, who battled injury problems in the second half of the 2014 season, was “a pretty dangerous small forward”.
“If he can get that first possession inside 50 and be a crumber, he would have done his job,” Dwyer said.
“It’s probably another area we might’ve been a bit vulnerable in last year, that first possession inside 50.”
Unheralded defender Mark Stewart, who is considering a shift to Cairns, looms as the only departure, with Dwyer rapt about the players’ unity.
“That’s definitely one advantage when you walk into a coaching job and you don’t have many leaving … they’re pretty close-knit.”
He said going back-to-back, something no Merrivale side has achieved, was “always an incentive” but “we’ve got to set those smaller goals along the way”.
“It’s easy to say ‘let’s go back-to-back’ but there’s a hell of a lot of work before you get to the finals or the grand final,” he said. “That’s what we’ll be doing, breaking the season down and setting smaller goals and hopefully we’re in a position to be talking about that in six months’ time.”
Merrivale had the last of eight training sessions before Christmas on Wednesday night and will resume on January 21.
The sessions have been about “primarily skills and decision making”. Running will dominate the January and February schedule.
“We were happy enough. We averaged our 25 to 30 blokes each night,” Dwyer said.
Off the field, former ruckman Luke McInerney is Merrivale’s new president. McInerney replaces Paul Fish.