Supersaints focused on further improvement in 2024

ST ALBANS Football Club has begun turning its head towards the 2024 Geelong Football League season, with the club locking in its senior coaching staff and four new recruits.

Supersaints coach Alex Tortora prepares to enter his third campaign as the Supersaints head coach, again bolstered by assistants Hayden Elliott, Adam Marsland, and Nat Brown, which was announced last week by the club.

Elliott (forward line), Marsland (midfield), and Brown (back line) all served under Tortora in 2023 and will all return to St Albans Reserve next season.

“They all have unique skillsets,” Tortora said.

“Hayden is obviously playing at the moment up forward for us and given he’s the youngest on our coaching staff, he’s able to provide a voice for our playing group, an insight we were after.

“Adam’s a recently retired veteran of the club who is extremely passionate, he bleeds black and white, and he’s a very willing learner constantly looking for ways to improve our players’ abilities and the way we do things.

“Nat is similar to Adam in that he brings exuberance to the group and a high energy factor that we relish as well as a willingness to learn. Overall, we balance each other out a bit.”

Tortora, offered a three-year-extension in 2022 that takes him to the end of 2025 as coach, says the group secured its two wins in 2023 at an opportune time of the season, providing a large chunk of momentum heading into the off-season break.

While both wins last season came against fellow bottom-three sides Lara and North Shore, Tortora’s side ended its 1,442-day losing streak, a drought dating back to 2019 and spanning 43 games.

The Supersaints began locking in its senior playing list back in August, re-signing a plethora of names, 19 in total, on August 25.

St Albans added 10 more names on October 11, before announcing four new faces to the group last month.

Joey Vasquez (Grovedale), Darcy Jones (Grovedale), Isaiah Harrison (Leopold), and Zac Larkins (Newtown & Chilwell) all arrive from the Under 18’s bracket and will ready themselves for a crack at the senior ranks in 2024.

The Supersaints re-signed a further seven last week, the club announced,

“Those two wins we had last season reminded us we’re on the right track, and with a little tweaking we can hopefully turn two wins into something more,” Tortora said.

“We’ll need a little bit more height through the group and some more experience, we also feel we received some organic growth through our younger players in 2023, some of which are now entering their third year of GFL footy.

“That carries a bit of weight and we’re now starting to expect some improvement from a large number of our players.”

The Supersaints begin pre-season activities on November 20.