Drysdale has received a boost in its quest to end a 15-year premiership drought with the return of Lauchie Dalgleish to the club.
Dalgleish, who played 60 games for the Hawks from 2019-2023, spent this year with the Ballarat Swans and was named in the Ballarat League Team of the Year.
The former Essendon player departed Mortimer Oval after accepting an assistant coaching role with VFL club Footscray and was only expected to play up to half a dozen matches for Ballarat.
However, after that role fell through, Dalgleish made 14 appearances and finished runner-up in the Swans’ best-and-fairest.
Drysdale coach Ben Carmichael says the 31-year-old will slip back into a role across half-back.
“It’s certainly a position we probably fell down, with that ball use behind the footy,” Carmichael said.
“With his run-and-carry, he’s a smart footballer, he’ll certainly be a great addition to our back half.”
In a further boost, Carmichael is expecting no departures from the team that was knocked out of the finals race by eventual premier Torquay in a preliminary final.
“Our first port-of-call was to sign up our whole list, and we’ve done that, which is really pleasing, and we’ll work off that,” he said.
“We didn’t think that we were far away last year.
“Like I’ve said before, you need a lot of luck to win finals and grand finals, and we’re pretty happy with where our list is at and the age demographic with so many young guys.”
Dalgleish’s return follows former Modewarre player Jackson Paatsch, who has arrived from Colac and District club Otway Districts along with Mitch Clark.
Drysdale has also added James Robbins from Ocean Grove.
The son of former Western Bulldogs and Geelong forward Matt, Robbins was on the Geelong Falcons list as a 17-year-old in 2024 and made three senior appearances for the Grubbers.
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