Dragons must wait on recruits
BELL Park will be forced to wait and see on the future of the VFL and universities whether a string of recruits will stay with the club in 2021.
The Dragons had planned to blood as many as eight debutants in Round 1 this year and are hopeful all of the new faces will return.
Some — such as Bendigo pair Jake Thrum and Ben Worme, as well as big man Will Christie — had joined the club with ambitions to play with Geelong’s VFL side in 2020. Others came to the area from the country to begin university studies and there is still uncertainty around on-campus classes next year.
Bell Park coach Shane Jack said more than 50 players had committed to playing with the club next year but some of the new faces were up in the air.
“We have got eight VFL guys, so with the VFL program nobody really knows what’s going to happen next year,” Jack said.
“We will just have to wait with them and see what happens with the VFL. Some of those guys are down here for uni, so hopefully if that gets going they will come down here for classes.
“Once (coronavirus restrictions) hopefully open up and we know a bit more about it we can hopefully work out what they are doing with their footy next year.”
Jack will remain in the role, leading the Dragons solo next year.
He said there was a strong crop of about 14 under-19 players looking to push into the senior program.
Bell Park’s aim is to return to the finals after missing the five on percentage to St Mary’s in 2019.
“With the salary cap coming out a couple of weeks ago, I have followed up with all of our list and had a good discussion with everyone and we were lucky enough to get a lot of them committed so we are looking forward to hopefully getting back into it by the end of the year,” Jack said.