The off-season may be in its infancy, but the Yass Magpies have remained active in the player market and moved to lock in many of their key squad members ahead of the 2025 campaign.
With the 2024 season bringing some level of success or improvement across the lower grades, including a Semi Final appearance in Reserve Grade and a premiership in the Katrina Fanning Shield, the club are looking to translate that success into the First Grade competition.
Magpies President Tim Clayton said that in creating their squad for next season, the club has made sure to re-sign all of their top local talent, whilst also moving to bring in some experienced and talented players from around the district.
“We have signed a lot of the players from last year that we wanted to sign, especially a lot of locals,” he said.
“We have certainly gone out to the market to have a look at what is available with an opportunity to come into Yass to fill some spots that we need to.
“Rana has re-signed and is a big signing for us. He is a dominant player in the competition by his selection in the CRRL.
“We are very pleased to have signed Lane Davis, Ben Davis, Andrew Smith, Blake Watson, Cooper Connor and we have Luke Gregory coming in as coach as he has put his feelers out around and we have managed to sign a couple of ex-Yass juniors that have been playing at Gundagai in Kaidan and Cody Bell and that certainly assists us in a back-rower and edge and fortunately a halfback.”
With the club looking to fill a few key positions for next season, Clayton said that the club has recruited well so far this off-season and with the potential for more local lower-grade players to progress through the ranks, things are looking up heading into next year for the Magpies.
“We are very pleased to have signed Jacob Lucas, he was the halfback from the premiership winning side from the Cherrypickers last year, so we are very happy and keen to have him on board,” he said.
“In the last couple of days we have also signed the Sing brothers who live in Harden and played in Young last year, Clay Sing as an edge for us and Brock Sing as a utility player.
“We are very keen to have all those guys on board and we are still looking around to see if anything pops up.
“Additionally we have signed a lot of our younger players as well with the potential that hopefully they will progress through the 19s, into Reserve Grade and into First Grade.”
After the news that former Gundagai coach Luke Berkrey was taking on the Magpies’ First Grade captain-coach role, as broken by the Yass Valley Times a few weeks ago, Clayton was happy to reveal that the two coaches of their premiership-winning Women’s Tackle side would be continuing in that role, while he also touched on the upcoming AGM later this month.
“From the female side it’s the same coaches as last year, they both had very successful years and we were happy with that, Jason Harson and Tommy Johnson,” he said.
“Our AGM is coming up on Tuesday, November 26 at the Soldiers’ Club. From what I can see there will be a splattering of new blood coming in with people that have stayed around for a while.
“If I’m lucky enough to be elected, I’m certainly comfortable to stand again for this remaining year.
“We can see some good things on the horizon and working towards a two-three year plan.
“Things are looking pretty positive at this stage, but no-one ever has a bad off-season.”
-Tallon Smith
