Torquay forward leads re-signing blitz

A RECORD-BREAKING game is expected to be latest return date for Torquay’s top forward to return to action from a serious knee injury.

Torquay forward Lucas Anderson has re-signed for Torquay into the 2025 season, alongside 18 other players including Matt Boag, Chase Loftus, Charlie Ham, Sheldon Ham, James Darke, Ben McNamara, Weylin Doyle, Oscar Lewis and Nathan Mifsud as the Tigers look to become the first Bellarine Football League three-peat team since Geelong Amateur from 2014 to 2016.

Anderson missed the majority of 2024 after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament in Round 4, which forced the star goalkicker to watch from the sidelines during this year’s premiership run.

He said he had almost begun running in his road to recovery and is desperate to get back to the field by at the latest Round 5 in 2025, in which coach Dom Gleeson will officially break the all-time BFL games coached record (179).

“We’ve got time up our sleeve, but that’s the date, I’m not missing that,” Anderson said.

“I love Dom, and that’s something I’d love to be a part of.”

Anderson finds himself in a new position personally, but not a new one from a club perspective.

The 286-gamer is in the same circumstances as captain James Darke, who was recovering from the same injury when the Tigers claimed the 2023 flag.

The first person Anderson heard from following his injury was Darke, and the two have remained in constant communication during the rehabilitation.

“Darke has just been amazing, he’s one of my best mates and has been there for me since day one.

“Just sitting beside me, checking in daily, it just shows the type of guy he is, how caring he is.

“I remember playing in last year’s Grand Final and I dedicated that game to him; to try and do him proud and yeah, he’s done the same thing for me this year.

“I have struggled with it at times, it’s been a process, but I can’t wait to get back out on to the field with him and the rest of the boys.”

Anderson was one of the first players to ink a 2025 extension at McCartney Oval in what will be his fifth year.

The former St Joseph’s recruit has kicked 534 goals during his local football career and is eager to get back on the podium, saying the feeling of missing out on a premiership medal was “bittersweet”.

“With me sitting out not putting on the jumper, I suppose it was a bit of a different feeling,

“I’m super-excited to get back out there and try to play in another premiership, and I think it’s the same for everyone else with the draw card of a possible three-peat hanging there.”

Anderson has kicked 165 goals in 43 games at Torquay, an average of 3.8 per game.