Gun St Joseph’s recruit Mitch Chafer won’t be seen in the opening month of the season as he continues his recovery from off-season shoulder surgery.
Coach Ron Watt confirmed the former Grovedale star, who joined last year’s minor premier before Christmas, is yet to be involved in any contact situations.
“He’s still a little way off yet,” Watt said.
“We haven’t even set a timeline on when we’ll get him back, but I’m thinking it’ll be about a month.
“He’s as fit as anyone at the club. In fact, probably running fit, he’s better than everyone.
“He just hasn’t done all the tackling and match play stuff, so he’s just a little bit off yet.”
Watt also confirmed star half-back Jack Buckley will remain with the club but is more than a month away from playing.
“He is playing with us, and he’s about six weeks away,” Watt said.
“We’ve set a pretty modest program or timeline for him to follow to make sure that he’s in good condition when he comes back, and the length of the season won’t be too much for him, because we need our best players playing at the right time.
“If we look at last year, we missed him in the lead-up to the finals, and he got him back just for that last game.
“And we probably didn’t prepare him as well as we could have, so we’re just taking our time with it this year.”
Joeys could unveil four first-gamers for the club when it faces arch-rival Newtown & Chilwell at the newly-named Jardon Oval to open the season on Saturday.
Former Grovedale player Keelin Betson has arrived from Goulburn Valley club Mooroopna to linkup with brother Liam,
Joining him are 2023 Bellarine Rookie of the Year Ed McCoy and 2023 GDFNL Rookie of the Year James Hose, while Joeys junior Cooper Ward returns from Barwon Heads after graduating from the Geelong Falcons.
Add to that the return of Geelong VFL-listed Joey Chaplin from a stint in the WAFL and premiership star Cal Mitchell after a year off, and St Joseph’s will take on a different look against the Towners.
Among those likely to be missing is leading goalkicker Paddy DeGrandi, who has made an impressive start to his stint with the Cats.
“It’s probably going to be a bit of a juggling act for us this year with six of our players who are all our own players who are on VFL lists or training with VFL clubs,” Watt said.
“That’s a great thing for Joeys to have, but it’ll also be a little bit unsettling at times.
“And, thanks to the local football league for taking a couple of points off us with our points allocation, so we’ll have to juggle a few things there as well.”
St Joseph’s is one of two clubs who will play under the 40-point benchmark in 2025.
St Mary’s has also been ‘handicapped’ by AFL Barwon, with both allocated 38 points.
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