Coach backs Macleod to have big impact Grove adds firepower
OCEAN Grove coach Paul Lynch says the addition of star recruit Brent Macleod will be immeasurable as the Grubbers build the nucleus of a side to challenge for the premiership.
Macleod, who claimed the Whitley Medal after a 96-goal season in the midfield at GDFL club Thomson, has bolstered Ocean Grove’s onball stocks by signing as a playing assistant coach.
The 24-year-old joins Colac premiership player James Linton, who recommitted to the club, and ball magnet Kelly Williams in a star-studded midfield group.
Add to the mix veteran James McTaggart, midfielder James Wills and forward Travis Gavin and the Grubbers are developing serious firepower.
Lynch is also eager to build the club’s key-position stocks and is hopeful of announcing more signings soon.
Macleod, who played with Tuggeranong in the NEAFL and SANFL club South Adelaide before returning home, will provide Ocean Grove with explosive power.
“Goal-kicking midfielders are as rare as hen’s teeth and he’s certainly one of those,” Lynch said. “He has the potential to play as a standalone mid and he can also play at full-forward for us.
“He will add heaps to us, heaps. We’ve now got Macleod, Jimmy Linton and Kelly Williams, so we’ve got three very good mids and a ruckman who is one of the better players in the competition.
“Our midfield’s starting to look really good and hopefully we can get some young kids in and around those three and develop them.”
Lynch said the club would juggle the points system to include Macleod, while also targeting for Ocean Grove juniors.
“He ( Macleod) is a fivepoint player, but he had an interest to get into coaching,” he said.
“There’s an opportunity there for him as assistant coach, and I will try to pass on as much of my experience as I can to him.”
Lynch has retained almost the entire list and he was confident the Grubbers could climb back into the finals on the back of a fruitful recruiting spree.
“We finished sixth and just out of the finals, and with what we’ve recruited, I think we can make that next step,” he said.
“As an outsider looking in, I don’t think there’s much between second and eighth.
“Ammos are a stand out, but there’s not much between the rest.”