Australian rules football
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
LEETON-WHITTON has been buoyed by the surprise return of last year's best and fairest winner Bryce O'Garey.
The star midfielder left the Crows at the end of last season to return to former Tasmanian club Glenorchy.
Coach Damian Lang was thrilled one of the best players in the Riverina Football League has returned, warning rivals that O'Garey could be in for his best season yet.
"He's just done a full pre-season with Glenorchy, so he is probably the fittest he has been for the last five or six years � it will be really encouraging for us as I think he can get better," Lang said.
One of the factors behind O'Garey's return is returning to his former job in Leeton after struggling to find full-time work in Tasmania, but Lang also believed the Crows' early exit from the finals series provided the extra motivation to return.
"Another couple of things were that he felt he had a bit of unfinished business from last year, which I think has left a bit of a sour taste in his mouth,'' he said.
"He is pretty keen to show everyone what he can do and what we can do as a team."
"He arrived back in town (on Wednesday), which is really pleasing for the young group we have this year.
"Hopefully he can get back and teach a lot of our young midfielders how to go about their football."
The return of O'Garey will also be a bonus for the Crows ahead of their first hit out of the year against Murray Football League outfit Finley in the Barooga Night Series tonight.
The Crows came away from last year's Barooga series as winners, but Lang wasn't expecting too much from his side in their first match of the year.
"Barooga is pretty much just to blow the cobwebs out,'' he said.
"We have a fair few players unavailable this week, so we had to scratch together a side, but it is still a handy side."
It is also the first time the Crows will have played since bowing out of the finals series with consecutive losses, despite flying high for the majority of the season.
"It will be a good chance for the boys to have a good runaround and to see where our fitness is at and what we have learned over the pre-season," Lang said.
"We'd like to go over there and perform well, but it is probably more important to get ourselves ready for the first round against Narrandera, but any trial match is good to start playing together and getting acclimatised to each other."
Will Overs, Craig Townsend, Josh King and Ben Curley will be among the experienced names missing for the Crows alongside numerous younger players away with school commitments, but Lang expected them all to be available for the second match of the tournament against Murray Football League premiers Nathalia next Friday.
Despite losing a lot of experience with the omissions, Lang believed tonight would be the perfect opportunity for some of the
younger players to step up into the spotlight.
"It will give a chance for a couple of our younger guys that really had a chance to taste senior footy to have a crack,'' he said.
"It will be interesting to see how all the young guys go as a lot have stuck around having gap years.
"The likes of Jono Spina, Thomas Meline and Chris Downes, have been playing good footy together and playing seniors for a year now so hopefully they should take the next step."
While Lang's focus has mostly been centred on his own team, he is expecting Finley, who were beaten in last year's grand final by Nathalia, to prove to be strong opposition.
"Apparently they have recruited pretty well this year, so it should be a tough test for us," he said.
The Crows warmed up for the match by playing an intra-club game on Sunday, which was well supported by the seniors and under 17s lists.