Endeavour Hills Football Club is ready to rise up the ladder in the SFL. From left, co-coaches Matt Ashenden and Michael Roberts and players John Ladson, Sam Walker and Tom Carr. 77275 Picture: Jarrod Potter
By Jarrod Potter
NOW into their second year of football, the Endeavour Hills Senior Football Club is going from strength to strength and it aims to give the other teams in the Southern Football League (SFL) a run for their money.
Finishing last in division three in 2011 with two wins and 16 losses, issues with depth and teething issues hampered the new club but signs of improvement were visible towards the end of the inaugural season.
“We struggled with injury last year,” co-coach Matt Ashenden said.
“We had a really good preseason but when we started playing games, a lot of blokes came down with injury.
“That said, we really came good the second half of the year and were really competitive against all the sides.
“The Dragons won the flag and we were ahead of them with five minutes to play at their home ground.
“That was the week we had the flu go through the club as well, so we were up against it and still managed to push them.”
The numbers keep growing every week at training and the coaches Ashenden and Michael Roberts believe the future is bright for the Eagles.
“This year we’ll be better suited with our depth so, hopefully, onwards and upwards from this year,” Ashenden said.
“We’ve already had 40 new blokes come to training, so we’ve had new guys down for every session and all of last years players are back as well.”
What’s important for the club is to create the right culture and from there, the hope is that on-field success will follow
“We’re really excited about the year ahead,” Roberts said.
“We’ve got a really good bunch of blokes and what was great about last year was we managed to create a good group of people and community around here and hopefully we can now develop those blokes into better footballers.”
Endeavour Hills faces the Doveton Eagles in round one at Barry Simon Reserve on 14 April.
