Premiership hangover? Not this time

REIGNING premier St Joseph’s is hellbent on creating a GFL dynasty, according to its coach Heath Jamieson, who says he is “as happy as I could be heading into the year”.

After becoming the first side since North Shore in 1998 to go through the home-and-away season undefeated last year en route to a premiership, the two-time premiership coach says complacency is not an issue at Drew Reserve.

“We want to win everything we can, I feel we’re really well placed to have a good crack at it again,” Jamieson said. “We set the bar high last year — we know clubs will come after us and we’re not going to sit there and think, ‘We’ve got this competition covered’, we want to make sure we make things happen.”

Jamieson is bullish about his side’s prospects despite the loss of GFL legend Daniel Lovick to BFL powerhouse Geelong Amateur. His departure has been offset the arrival of key position target and Vic Country representative Lucas Anderson from Ballarat, as well as the return of 2015 premiership ruckman Josh Hovey from reigning BFL premier Torquay.

“The core of the group is still improving as footballers,” Jamieson said.

“They’re only 21, 22 or 23 years of age. There are guys here that are still improving who are at the 100game mark, which is quite scary.

“We’ve got 30-35 players that are capable of playing really good GFL footy.”

Jamieson said the handful of Joeys aligned with VFL clubs, including Brenton Rees and Jackson McLachlan, will still be seen “for the majority of the year” in the red, black and yellow.

Joeys suffered a slip up in last year’s second semifinal but responded emphatically to turn the tables on St Mary’s in a one-sided grand final that was over by half time. Their grand final performance vindicated one of the most perfect seasons ever seen in local footy, monstering teams with a percentage of 252.50. They were the highest-scoring GFL team (2376 for) and had the best defence (941 against).