Benalla ready to hit ground running this preseason

“It’s great to get back into it. We did a few weeks prior to Christmas and it’s good to have the boys back together,” Pallpratt said.

“Now we can start to get a bit more serious, knowing we are only nine weeks away from playing our first practice match.”

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Though the Saints' pre-Christmas training focussed primarily on getting the team back together in a fun environment, Pallpratt said the club would now "hit the ground running" ahead of two practice matches scheduled for March.

The Saints will face Ovens and Murray outfits Wodonga Raiders and Wodonga Bulldogs on March 13 and 20 respectively ahead of its GVL season opener against the Shepparton Swans on April 3.

“There is no easing into it now, we’ll start some match simulations tonight (Thursday, January 14) and get into it so we're ready to go come time for our first practice match,” he said.

“We’re certainly looking forward to putting the same plan into place we had last preseason.

“That’s one positive I guess, you don’t need to change your game plan too much because we didn’t get a chance to see if it would work last year.”

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On the list front, the Saints line-up remains similar to its planned 2020 squad.

And though the club has lost the services of defender Jackson Heagney-Steart and forward Steve Murray, it has picked up Zach Pallpratt and Tom Bennett who both return to the club.

“Both are interleague players, Zach won a senior best and fairest here in 2016, and Tom’s represented Benalla many times. So we’ve added a bit of midfield class and still hoping to get a few others,” Pallpratt said.

Joining Pallpratt among the coaching ranks is Pete Rigby and Terry Blackburn, who both return to the helm of the reserves and under-18 teams respectively.

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Rigby said he was eager to assist the club moving forward in 2021, and would work with Pallpratt to implement a strong reserves team.

“It’s all about senior football and progressing the reserves through to play senior footy,” Rigby said.

“It’ll be a young team, I want to make sure they enjoy their footy and enjoy the club, and we’ll have plenty of those young kids knocking on the door to play seniors.

But perhaps the biggest challenge of the season will be firmly in Blackburn’s hands as he leads the under-18s program this season.

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With playing numbers already on the decline in recent years, along with the Wangaratta junior league moving to an under-17 model and a year off post-COVID-19, Blackburn is not unrealistic about the challenges of putting a team together.

“I’ve been involved since 2015. In six years, the numbers have dropped back ridiculously over the years,” Blackburn said.

“And with COVID-19 this year, who knows what is coming.”

Blackburn said the club was led by an enthusiast panel of coaches across the grades but encouraged parents to “get on the bandwagon” to help get kids back playing football.

“All we can do is put it out there for them, and it's for them to have a go,” he said.

“We'll ring around and get a list going for juniors. But we also need parents getting involved and willing to take their kids to footy and training.”

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And like the reserves, Blackburn said his team would put a large focus on development and having fun.

“It’s always about development and improvement – and it’s not all about football and results, it's improvement as people and young men and pointing them in the right direction,” he said.

“We’ve always had that outlook that if you raise them as good people, they’ll be good club people.

“We want to drive that enthusiasm, and get kids involved and that mateship up and running again.

“I’m hoping to achieve that more than winning premierships.”

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