Things are on the up for Tarneit in the Western Football League division 2 competition.
After failing to win a game last season, the Titans under new coach James Foord are preparing for a new era.
Foord said the pre-season had exceeded all their expectations so far.
“We’re actually flying,” he said. “I know that is something that people say all the time.
“In the fortunes of the club and where it was at, we were struggling to get players to fill our reserves side early days last year I heard.
“Our numbers at training have been incredible.
“It’s going swimmingly, the club that we’re trying to build and the culture.”
Foord said they had 85 players on the track for the first night of pre-season which was a bit daunting.
While they haven’t had that many since, there have been really good numbers.
“We’ve been able to entice a couple of the players that had a few years there and maybe hadn’t been around for the last few years,“ he said.
“I phoned literally everyone that had been at the club the last couple of years and asked what went well, how are you doing and are you willing to play?
“I pitched a culture of team care with family first, then work or study and us third.
“Look after everything else first and that message struck a lot of people.”
After having a really young group, Foord said they had looked to bring in a few older players to even out the age profile a little bit.
He said he didn’t want it to just be his voice all the time.
“They’ve been super proactive,“ he said. “People doing pre-training drills, we’ve given the stuff to do and they’ve actioned it pretty quickly.
“Some concepts we’ve introduced have been really handy at training and they’d been picking it up pretty quick.”
Foord said they had seen growth from inside the club while they’ve added some players to help them out.
Wingers Tristan Berto and Ben Humphrey, utility Cooper Roberts, forward Hayden Moore and ruck Jai Maxwell have joined the club.
Luke Hobson, Jason Seduikis and Reece Frost are all returning to the club
Foord said they still had some others who were training with them and they had given them time to make the right decision for them.
“We said we’ll attract who we are and we have to start being that place that we want to be at, that has really fostered the culture,“ he said.
“Things are looking really positive and all our young bridge has signed on and keen to crack in.
“We’re already seeing a bit of growth and maturity which is nice.“
Foord said they were developing a leadership program for emerging leaders.
He said while they were looking at the 2026 season, they were also planning for the next couple of seasons as well.
