Roosters aim to reboundas team chemistry builds

NORTH Ballarat coach Clint Proctor is preaching patience as the Roosters negotiate a testing start to the 2025 BFNL season.

The Roosters, who clash with Sunbury at Clarke Oval this Saturday, have started the season with just two points to show from their first two contests, highlighted by a draw against Ballarat Swans in their season opener and an ultra-competitive loss to East Point.

They have done so while negotiating a lengthy injury list and plenty of what Proctor termed “moving parts” due to a swelling pool of VFL-listed players.

As they prepare to take aim at the Lions in round three, the first-year Roosters coach is not losing sight of the long-term outlook.

“I’m not naive, I understand how even the competition is – it’s a marathon not a sprint for us. We are just building,” Proctor said.

“I’m confident we can get our footy going, but it will probably come a little bit later in the year.

“There are a few moving parts right now.

“But we’re getting opportunities for young guys, which is really good. We probably wouldn’t have got that if we were healthy.

“That exposure is going to help us in the long term.”

Among those to grasp their early chances is 16-year-old midfielder Oscar Stone, who has continued the form that stamped him as one of the standouts during the Roosters’ pre-season.

“He was fantastic (against East Point), really clean…great speed and great decision making,” Proctor said.

“He’s going to be a really strong player for us.

“We’ll see how he goes week-to-week – it’s always a challenge for young guys, but he looks really capable.

“Will Pfitzner has played in the ruck as we don’t have Cam McCallum at the moment. Again, he’s had two games of senior football, which he wouldn’t have had.

“Jake Hutchinson has had two games as well. They’re North kids, straight out of juniors, so that’s really positive.

“And obviously we’ve had a few recruits play their first games, so that’s another positive.”

Among the recruits, former Hawthorn-listed player Josh Morris, who played under Proctor at Box Hill in 2022, was a standout in the round one draw against Ballarat.

Morris, who missed the East Point loss with a hamstring injury, is expected to be back against Sunbury.

Given their injury woes, which were further compounded against East Point, Proctor could not fault the Roosters’ effort against last year’s runners-up.

“We had two of our defenders, Fletcher Loader (hamstring) and Fletcher McCarty (hip and internal bruising) go out in literally the first 10 minutes, so we were down two rotations on a hot day,” he said. “I thought we played incredibly well considering the team we had on the park.

“It was good to see our brand of footy comparted to the week before. To be honest, we didn’t play the way we wanted to play in round one.

“So, we take a lot of positives from the way we went about it.

“We know that with a few tweaks and a few players back, we’re capable.

“But it’s going to take a bit of time through sheer availability, and the ebbs and flows with young players and a new game plan.

“Given it’s a tight competition and there’s a top six, that’s really where we are hoping to be, in that middle part, and competitive long enough and we’ll go from there.”

He added that Sunbury, which beat Redan by 26 points on Good Friday, would present a formidable challenge for his side on their home deck.

“I know the dynamics of the ground are quite large, which is a real plus for us considering we are younger and like a bit of speed in the game,” he said.

“It’s exciting. Honestly, I think it’s a really big game for us, because if we can pinch this one, it will give us some comfort to take into the middle period of the year.

“We know it’s a journey this season, so we’ll just keep building.”