Steve Staunton, who was runner-up in the Hampden league best and fairest football award in 2015 just weeks before setting off for London, is poised to don the blue and red again next year.

Bloods coach Michael Sargeant was pleased to welcome back a player of Staunton’s calibre.

“It’ll just be good to get another best and fairest winner (in the team) and it helps with recruiting next year to have him committed early,” Sargeant said.

Staunton, a Hampden interleague representative, had a stellar year in his most recent Hampden season, finishing runner-up to Koroit’s Isaac Templeton.

The Bloods will look to attract more local talent back to Terang Recreation Reserve next season, but Sargeant said that will be a project for down the track with his focus very much on the season at hand.

He was confident the team would be able to bounce back from a disappointing loss to Port Fairy and recapture the form they had been building, which included wins over South Warrnambool and Camperdown.

“It’d been a really good month of footy for us,” he said. “Even North Warrnambool, who are a form side of the competition, we ran them right to the end.”