Only one Goulburn Valley League foe beat the Murray Bombers last year, but it just happened to be one of country football’s great teams in Kyabram, and it did beat them four different times.
But the team has learned plenty from its 19-point grand final loss, and another year of experience for the league’s most exciting group of youngsters inspires belief, once again, that this could be Echuca’s year.
And its local youth is indeed what Victoria Park’s finest will look to in order to close the gap to the competition’s best, rather than by hiring gun talents to try and get the side across the line.
“We’ve had a lot of people say to us we could win the premiership with two or so blokes from Melbourne, but we went the opposite way because of our fantastic kids,” Echuca co-coach Simon Maddox said.
“Since (fellow co-coach) Andrew (Walker) and I have been on board we’ve really trimmed back on our Melbourne players.
“If they live around Echuca or are from here, it just means there’s more locals on the track.
“Our thirds have won the premiership the last two seasons and we want to create an environment that allows many of them to be part of our next senior premiership side.”
It means players including Jack Evans, Joe Guiney, Will Devlin and Mitch Wales could be in the senior mix as the Murray Bombers look to find an X-factor that will rattle the champion’s cage.
An exciting quartet has also joined the side; Victorian under-19 captain Logan Prout, Old Geelong midfielder Joe Couch, Palmerston captain Aaron Lonergan and tall prospect Liam Tenace all continue to build a deep list that will be a premiership contender in the foreseeable future.
“We feel like we’re just as strong as last year, maybe with just a bit more of an Echuca flavour,” Maddox said.
“We feel with the youngsters we can keep going back to well, we’re not just trying to nick a premiership, we’re building to try and win multiple.”
Having beaten every team in the competition and pushed to within four goals of Kyabram on grand final day, Echuca has every right to be full of confidence as it once again seeks to claim the GVL’s throne, and Maddox said motivation was sky-high without the grand final loss even being mentioned.
“We haven’t really touched on it, but it spurs you on,” he said.
“The thing that’s disappointing is we didn’t fire a shot or play our best.
“If you play your best, you can walk off and hold your head high.
“But now we’ve been there and done it, we had eight teenagers playing that day, and that’s tough compared with Kyabram’s older, experienced bigger bodies.
“But even when we had injuries and were a bit busted up, we still beat every other side, and that is a far cry from a few seasons ago when all three grades missed finals.”