‘We are in a much stronger position than last year’: Benalla Saints poised to take next step in rebuild

Just 12 months ago the club found itself in the midst of the worst player shortage in its history, as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic played their cruel hand.

A Save Our Souls social media plea did see the Saints get numbers for a senior football side together for the 2022 campaign, but a lack of depth saw the reserves only manage nine games.

This made for a dire return on the field, as the club finished 12th on the senior ladder and received a myriad of floggings in the process.

The rebuild was going to be a tough one for the brains trust at Benalla — but now, just one year later, an influx of new and returning players has seen some light appear at the end of the tunnel for the Saints faithful.

“Everything at this stage is going very well from on an on-field stand point,” Saints president Geoff Hill said.

“Numbers have improved from last year, we would have liked to have had another eight or 10 players on our list to make sure we aren’t going to be ringing around each week to get a reserves team up.

“But the pleasing thing is that we have 22 or 23 under-18s whereas this time last year we had around 13 I think.

“So with good numbers in the thirds and some solid recruits in the seniors we are in a much stronger position than last year, but we still need to do a bit of work as the rebuild continues.”

Supporters caught their first glimpse of the Saints in action last weekend, as they travelled to Congupna to take on the Road in a practice match.

With a large contingent of the senior side unavailable, Hill said the Saints used the clash as a chance to expose some of their youngsters to senior football.

“We had a lot of players unavailable on Saturday, so it was just a good hit-out for the guys that turned up to get a bit of match fitness,” he said.

“We gave our younger guys a lot of opportunity as a few them look to push for senior selection in round one.

“So overall we are happy with what we got out of the day.”

While on the field things are looking positive, off the field the summer months did present the club with a number of tough challenges.

These stem from the floods that devastated northern Victoria back in October, with the Benalla Football Netball Club copping plenty of damage, which it is still in the process of trying to get repaired.

“We are in the process of replacing the flooring in the clubrooms after that all copped water damage, and we are confident we will have that completed for round one,” he said.

“The storm damage saw a tree fall on our canteen which wiped that out, so as we go through the process of getting that rebuilt we will be operating out of a temporary structure for the majority of the season.

“And our netball shed was something we hoped to have repaired by round one but that may not happen.

“So we’ve got a bit of work to do in relation to some issues off the field in regards to that damage.”

Despite those challenges, the club has been determined to forge ahead, and is now at a stage where all is in readiness for the 2023 season.

This coming Saturday the Saints are inviting the local community down to see the progress of the on-field rebuild first-hand, as they take on Bell Park in a practice match before hosting a season launch.

“On Saturday we host Bell Park in a practice match during the day, and then at night it is more a season launch to introduce the players and coaching staff to the members of the club,” Hill said.

“We are encouraging all members past, present and anyone thinking of joining to come down and meet the players, meet the coaches and have a bit of a launch into what is hopefully going to be an exciting year.”