Grubbers keen to give under-19s senior experience in first round

OCEAN Grove is set to blood up to 10 juniors in Round 1 as the Grubbers begin a new era under coach Pete Davey.

Davey will tackle his first season in charge with a youth policy, determined to take the club in a new direction.

“We’ve been pretty quiet (on the recruiting front) and purposely,” Davey said.

“We’ve signed a few guys, but we’ve been really particular with who we’ve wanted to bring in. We’ve spoken to a few guys — probably at least 30 — who reached out to us or players who were directed to us, but they’re not what we’re looking for.

“I’m rapt with the youth we’ve got down there and I want to back those guys in from the under-19s side.

“There’s every chance we could play 10 under-19s in Round 1 and I’ll certainly promote that.

“There’s been a lot of movement around the other BFL teams, and funnily enough, a lot of those players have spoken to us as well, but their intentions aren’t what we’re trying to build our club around.

“We were happy for them to go elsewhere.”

The Grubbers have lost a wealth of senior experience, with Kelly Williams, Luke Cartelli and Pete Hardy departing.

Justin Carey is bound for GDFL club Geelong West, although his wish to get to the Giants has not been granted.

Carey’s first clearance on November 21 was rejected, while a second clearance submitted on February 1 is listed as “pending”. But Davey is confident Carey will be released.

“I spoke to Justin before Christmas and I wished him all the best going to the Giants.”

Ocean Grove also reluctantly cleared midfield dynamo Cartelli, but he departed with the club’s best wishes.

“Luke felt he had one year left with his body and he just wanted to play one year with his brother, who is playing down at Keilor,” Davey said.

“So there’s no malice there at all. He was probably the one that we would’ve loved to have played for us, not just from an ability perspective, but a character point of view because he’s a ripping guy.

“We’re all on the same page because family comes first. There was no issues about letting him go back home.”

The Grubbers have already added Andrew Jarvis (South Barwon), Harris Dolley (Newtown & Chilwell) and David Stretton (Shepparton) to the senior side and could be set to land another key player.