Demons recruits drawn by freedom
THE lure of Tasmania’s Covid-free lifestyle has helped North Hobart land two key recruits that the club hopes will assist them on its climb back up the ladder in season 2022.
The Dees recently announced the signing of interstate pair Lachie Dale and Luke Quirk, who will join the club from Myrtleford in the Ovens and Murray League, which had its 2021 finals campaign cancelled due to Covid.
North Hobart president Craig Martin said he was thrilled with the additions and revealed a major selling point to the pair was the
freedom that Tassie offered.
“They’re both really keen to move to Tassie for the Covid-free lifestyle,” Martin said.
“They want to come to a place where they can move about freely and seem really keen to experience the lifestyle that Tassie can offer compared to the mainland.”
He said the club had been looking at local and interstate players since the start of the year and that Tasmania being free of Covid was certainly a strong selling point to attracting interstate players.
“Tassie is certainly the flavour of the month at the moment because we haven’t had Covid here in a long time, so I think people are looking
at Tassie as a great place to work and live and to a degree we’ve used that as a selling point,” he said.
While Martin was happy to provide the recruits a newfound freedom, it was on the field he was most excited
about when speaking of the two newest Dees.
“They are both going to add a tremendous amount to our club,” he said.
“Lachie has got great pace, great hands, kicks goals and is the sort of player who can play forward and rotate in the middle.
“Luke is a 196cm ruckman who is a really good athlete and he’s tough and hard and a big strong lad which is something we need to help out our younger players.”
The Dees received the wooden spoon in 2021 and Martin said the additions of Dale and Quirk, along with the recent recruit of gun small forward Callen Daly, were stepping stones on getting the
proud club where it wanted to be.
“We think the moves we’ve made so far will certainly help us improve,” he said.
“I think that when you combine the list of players we have currently, with the large contingent of talented young Devils players, as well as the new recruits, we feel we just need three or four additional top-end players to make us stronger and give us a real chance at success.”
Martin said Dale and Quirk would arrive in the state in early December as long as restrictions allowed, and revealed the club was certainly not done with its offseason recruiting.