STILL WORKING ON IMPROVEMENTS

21 Apr 2015 by Justin Grose

Coming Into his eighth season 2014 club captain Matt Stanley says I have enjoyed every bit of it, the Rowville football club is a big part of my life.

I am also very proud to say that l am a part of the Rowville football club, helped it get where it is and indeed l am looking forward to the FUTURE because our best is still ahead of us if we stick at it. I really enjoy the culture and people involved at the club, it is what makes it so enjoyable TO PLAY here he reflected recently.

Matt or Stanno as we all know him could now be considered one of the veterans in the side, not bad for a 27 year old!!

This year my preseason has been focussed on improving my speed and endurance, last year l really noticed how hard the quality players in our comp worked to be at every CONTEST they could and indeed the amount “gut busting running” they would do in a GAME. If we can all improve certain aspects of our game it can only help the team and that’s the most important thing, we are a tight knit bunch and we all want the same thing – team success, Matt went on to say.

Our second preseason under Bushy (senior coach Peter Bastinac) is going well, a lot different to the 1st under him. This time around we can focus more on the game plan/style and also individual needs, we are a much more rounded team under him with our structures and the maturity of THE LIST certainly grew as the season went on last year.

We know our best footy is good enough to match it with all the big boys Matt added.

We all learnt last year that no one is above anyone else and we are all expected to play our role, we are a team and that’s what it’s going to take to WIN games of footy and be a real competitor in this competition. We can’t rely on a few players to get us through if we want to be a really good side, we need 22 CONTRIBUTORS.

Matt told us it was pleasing to see some of the younger boys embrace their preseason and working really hard to get better and push for a senior GAME. One that comes to mind quickly is Dean Boavida (Snoop).

He has really impressed with his fitness and skills and is a major stand out so far this preseason, hopefully he can turn that into senior footy this year.

On the coaching front Stanno told us, we obviously have had a couple of setbacks with Willo (Clint Williams Senior assistant) and Webby (John Webb Defensive coach) not being able to CONTINUE with us but the club move pretty fast to replace them with good quality replacements. The club is in good shape, we have a really good core group of players that have played together for several years now (which l think is real important) and with the young talent we have coming through its exciting times for the Rowville football club

When asked what he would like to see improved, Matt said “I am probably stating the obvious here but we need an UPGRADE on our club/social rooms” and l am sure there is something in the pipeline for this to happen, we have seen many changes to our facility’s over the years which has been awesome and this is hopefully the next step. Stanno went on to say “Where there is change there is cost”, we need all players helping as much as possible with player sponsors etc. It all helps.

As for this season l am pretty optimistic, l think we can improve on last year which would see is finish in the top 5, well that’s our goal anyway he finished .

10 things we learnt about Matt

Marital status Married to Jess

Nickname Stanno

What do you do for a JOB? Territory Manager at Stegbar

Favourite AFL Club? Essendon (Still love them)

Favourite dish? Satay chicken

Favourite food? Chinese

Favourite movie? Remember the titans

What other SPORTS do you PLAY/enjoy? Golf

Who is your most annoying teammate? Dom

Why? His hair cut
What do you do in your spare time? A lot of preparing for our first child