Eagles snare former Hawk
A FORMER Hawk is now an Eagle.
Ex-Hawthorn midfielder Teia Miles has joined Newtown & Chilwell as his aligned club for 2021.
Miles signed with Williamstown last year but will play with the Eagles in the GFL when not on VFL duties.
Newtown & Chilwell coach Damien McMahon said the 24-year-old had been training with the club since before Christmas and would add “a bit more bite to our midfield”.
“He’s obviously a very talented player who was playing AFL footy not that long ago (and is) a perfect age for us,” McMahon said.
“He’s got some really good mates at Newtown, so that’s probably what’s brought him to our club.
“There’s a bit of a Barwon Heads connection as well, with Zach Walters joining us the year before. There’s plenty of Barwon Heads boys — Lewy Hyland and also Hayden Smith. We’ll end up with half a dozen Barwon Heads born and bred boys running around at Newtown.
“He’ll give us some really good midfield run and complements Matt Boag returning from a year off through a shoulder reconstruction and our reigning best-and-fairest winner in Blake Sutterby and our Mathieson Medal winner in Matt McMahon. It adds a bit more bite to our midfield.”
Miles made 12 AFL appearances and played in Box Hill Hawks’ 2018 VFL flag but was delisted at the end of 2019.
“We’d been chatting to him for a month,” McMahon said.
“We had probably three or four catch-ups. He came and trained with us for a couple of weeks before he signed.”
Veteran David Fanning returned to training this week but Brook Martyn has retired.
McMahon said there would be more recruiting news and the club would look to give its crop of Geelong Falcons players, including Mitch Langan, Gennaro Bove, Blake Reid, Noah Gribble, Max Annandale and Kyle Skene, senior opportunities this year.
“From a club perspective, our junior ranks are probably as healthy as they’ve been in the last 10 years,” he said.
“It’s pretty exciting for our footy club to have so many young talented 19-year-olds in VFL programs that will be filtering back.”
Newtown & Chilwell has practice games against University Blues, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers and Geelong West Giants (GFL) before its Round 1 clash with Leopold.