By RUSSELL BENNETT
BULN BULN player-coach Paul Alger has played 499 senior footy games and if he has it his way, he won’t reach the magical 500 mark.
“If the reserves are short I’ll play there but I’ll only play in the ones if there are, like, 22 injuries first,” he said on the eve of the new EDFL East season.
It won’t phase him in the slightest if he doesn’t make it to 500 because if he doesn’t it will mean his side has stayed injury-free and that he’s been able to blood the Lyrebirds’ promising youngsters.
Suddenly after a lean few years, Buln enters the new season as a smoky to contend in the East.
Aside from the Warragul Industrials – who are seen by many as raging-hot premiership favourites – the race seems wide open.
Alger is confident in how his side has recruited over the off-season, with reigning Garfield premiership coach Brent Eastwell returning to his home club.
The Warragul pairing of Matt Gray – also a Buln favourite son – and Tim Webster has joined him, as has Drouin’s Sean Proctor.
The 28-year-old Gray and returning Lyrebirds playing-assistant Bob McCallum will form an imposing ruck tandem while Eastwell is sure to play an on-field role in 2014 despite ankle surgery.
Alger thinks his side is ahead of the eight-ball after the moves it’s made.
“Sides know they only have to pick up a few players to be able to play finals this season,” he said.
“Our aim is to play finals and we think that’s an achievable goal.
“There’s no doubt the Dusties are the side to beat – they’ve recruited well again and they’ve been in the top four for the past four or five years now.
“They’re the only side in our local area that could compete with the others (in the West).
“Everyone has recruited pretty well, I think, but they should be on top.”
But Warragul Industrials player-coach Shane Brewster denies his side will carry any real favouritism into the season.
“I don’t believe we are (the favourite) – a lot of other clubs have done some heavy recruiting,” he said.
“Buln will be very hard to beat but Longwarry has some good young kids coming through and Poowong will be tough, too.
“It’s probably too hard to tell who the favourite is at the moment but we are hoping to be right there to fight it out (for the premiership).”
The Dusties’ big inclusion over summer was Brewster’s younger brother Danny, who was the player-coach at Neerim Neerim South last season.
He has come back to Warragul to link up with Shane and little brother Nathan, but also to try and win another senior premiership.
“We identified that a big key forward and ruck was probably our biggest need after last season,” Shane said about Danny’s recruitment.
“We had a lot of footy in our forward half but sometimes struggled to capitalise on it without that big focal point up forward.
“We needed that little bit more skill and hardness at the contest – we already had plenty of speed and some quality young kids.”
Among the Dusties’ other inclusions for 2014 are Jimmy Bradshaw from Cora Lynn; Ben Northover, fresh out of the Gippsland Power system; and rugged Pakenham on-baller Joel Gibson.
Poowong, meanwhile, has taken some big steps forward under new coach Ron Hampton – such as signing big Mark Bradley to play alongside, and mentor, ruckman Conor Cunningham.
Yet the Magpies have been dealt a massive blow right on the eve of the season with the shock departure of versatile young star Zeke Lamb to rivals Nilma Darnum.
Hampton, who coached Lamb in last season’s EDFL interleague side, has been left bitterly disappointed over the move.
He had the youngster slated for a playing-assistant’s role prior to his switch.
The timing couldn’t be worse for the fledgling team, which has already lost newcomers Travis Lockhart and Sam Russell to injury and seen last year’s player-coach Matt Grant make a high-profile switch to EDFL West contenders, Kooweerup.
Hampton will again assume the role of EDFL interleague coach this year, with Demons player-coach Matt Shorey also committing as an assistant.
