From hunter to hunted: Shepparton United’s new look for title defence

Roven Shaholli’s men will be hopeful of keeping their grip on the competition ascendancy, but it’s a different looking squad from the one that conquered Shepparton South 2-1 in last year’s grand final.

The Blues waved goodbye to star striker Marcus Thomas and league best-and-fairest Riki Koyanagi over the off-season, but after a deep Dockerty Cup campaign in the lead-up to this weekend’s round one tie against La Trobe University, the McEwen Reserve natives showed they’re still a formidable force.

“It was a lot of work over the off-season,” Shaholli said.

“The boys are looking good, they’re excited.

“We lost some big-name players but the young ones have pulled in the spots.

“I think we’re going to have another great year.”

The United gaffer said the opportunity is there for the club’s young core to step up, but admitted it might take a moment to establish the premiership-winning brand of 2025.

“A lot’s changed,” Shaholli said.

“Every game’s going to be slightly different with a few of the younger guys trying to fit in the system.

“We have a couple of different ways we’d like to play so we want to make sure the boys fit in the system and pretty much see how they take it.”

United’s senior women, meanwhile, are looking to go one better in 2026 after the Blues finished second but bowed out to Strathfieldsaye in the preliminary final.

“We’ve put together a good pre-season, we started training early,” United coach Sheridan Fairless said,

“We have some good juniors coming through which has been great.

“We’re in a really fortunate position across the board with our women and girls program and we’re in a position where although we’ve had some girls leave, some girls can step in and have that skill set.”