Yarra Valley Water InFocus 2025 | Heathmont

By Jared Beanland.

2024 was a year of two halves for the Heathmont senior men’s side.

With lofty expectations after a near-successful 2023 campaign, the Jets took too long to take off, winning only two games in the first half of the year.

Their best footy turned out to be finals-worthy, demonstrated by a mere two-point loss to the eventual premiers Boronia. It turned out to be too little, too late, as they ended up two wins and percentage away from a spot in the top five.

Senior men’s coach Scott Hamill is now in his third year at the club, and reflects that his squad are not as far off another tilt at the flag as a seventh-placed finish would suggest.

“It was disappointing the way we started the year, and we were realistic and know exactly where we’re at at the start of the year. I was very proud of the group the way we finished the year, you can see with the numbers we had, and the way we played in that second half, our best football is definitely good enough," Hamill said.

A large factor in Heathmont’s slow start last year was the health of the list, as injuries ravaged the side during the early rounds. While some were able to get back onto the park, multiple players missed all or most of the 2024 season, and Hamill is anticipating successful returns for each of them.

“We had a few guys who missed all of last year through injury who are now back, fit and firing, and will feature in round one this week. We missed Wade van Leeuwen, Tom Hancock, and Bailey Stevens only played a couple of games last year. And one of our key recruits last year, Mitch Jones, he’d done his ACL in the early stages of the year. We’ll get him back in round four or five as well, which will be a great asset for us.”

It has been a busy off season at HE Parker, with a variety recruits and returnees bolstering the stocks at Heathmont’s disposal, including two prolific goal kickers from seasons past.

“We’ve gone out and recruited some experienced players. It’s also a key factor for us to get players back to the club. They’ve slotted back in really nicely,"

"Ayhan left to play in the NFNL’s top division, he held his own, and was one of Montmorency’s leading goal kickers, and their main go-to forward. And Jed Hansen had a year at Blackburn. They’ve both come back very fit and healthy, I can see they’re eager to get into it sending themselves back to Heathmont.”

These two inclusions provide extra routes to goal for Heathmont. In Hansen’s latest season for the Jets, 2023, he kicked a handy 23 goals from 19 games.

Bajramov’s foray into Northern footy produced a successful year, kicking 26 goals from 19 games for the North’s top division runners-up, Montmorency. 

The departure of Liam Malone leaves a hole to be filled, but Hamill is confident that a revolutionalised forward line will be more than enough to compensate for the loss of Heathmont’s leading goal kicker of 2024.

“(Bajramov is) probably like-for-like, but we’ve also picked up Declan Reilly from Blackburn who’s a full forward-centre half forward from the under 19s,"

"We got Lachie Sverns back, who’s a tall, so while Postie (Malone) is a loss, and he’s young, he’s got a lot of great footy ahead of him, we have got players who can absolutely cover his exit. So as much as we’d love to have him in our side, we’ve do have him covered.”

“There definitely will be a difference this year compared to last year. The difference we’ve got this year, is that we’ve actually got lot more forwards, now and a wider range of options to score goals. We were a little bit one-dimensional last year. You can see by our results that we defend games really well, and our ball use is up there with the best of them.”

One of the positives of Heathmont’s 2024 season was the successful integration of several players from Norwood. Bringing Premier Division experience to HE Parker, players such as Braden Bird, James and Dylan Feltham, Daniel Young, and Josh Buceto all made a significant impact in the successes that Heathmont did have last year.

“They fit in very well from the outset. Not only are they good footballers, they’re good people as well. You have a look at the way they’re travelling this year, compared to last year, they’re pillars apart. They’re more advanced with another year in the system, and they’ve got to know what we’re about at Heathmont. They’re tracking really well.”

One of the biggest recruits in Division Two this year will be James Appleby. A former Doncaster East captain in Premier Division, Appleby has played a total of 95 senior games for the Lions, and an additional 60 for Warrandyte earlier in his career. His experience and ability would be a significant contributing factor if Heathmont were to make it deep in season 2025. 

“He’s going really well, he was obviously a Premier Division captain, so he’s brought a great deal of leadership and professionalism from the top. The thing is when you get guys down from Premier Division, they lift our training standards as well, and our training expectations.”

Hamill is excited about having a plethora of players to choose from, given how the whole squad has trained in the preseason, from mainstay best 22 players, down to the development squad.

“To be honest we’ve probably had the list as a whole step up. There’s guys who were fringe last year who will find themselves playing regular senior football. And there were guys amongst our recruits from last year who I thought were going to be fringe players this year, but have changed my perception on them from the way they’ve trained throughout the course of the preseason.”

With Boronia ascending to Division One after a dominant year, the logjam of teams fighting for spots in the 2024 finals now becomes a question of who will become the Hawks’ successor to the Division Two flag.

“I think across the board it’s going to be tight. We know we’ve recruited well, and our best maybe good enough, but obviously we respect the opposition. We’re under no illusion about how good up-and-coming sides, and sides that are well established in the division are going to be. There’s going to be no week off.”

Entering his third year as coach of Heathmont, Hamill has already proven his chops as a coach by taking the Jets to a Grand Final in 2023. He reflects on what has helped him ply his trade at HE Parker the past two years.

“You develop as an individual, whether you’re a player or coach. You’re always learning every day, and you develop as you go with the players you’ve got on hand. The good thing I’ve got at Heathmont is a lot of support, and some good coaches behind me. So it allows me to coach freely. Probably the biggest thing I’ve got is the buy-in of the players – we all trust each other. It’s not an easy job, but it’s definitely an enjoyable job.”

Treating last year as an anomaly, Hamill is hoping to get Heathmont back to the finals race, explaining that the Jets’ best footy allows him to have lofty expectations for them in 2025.

“Our pass-mark and expectation for us is to get back to playing finals. With that it’s our ability to defend, and keep sides to low scores, but also be able to kick our scores at the other end. You see the best games of footy that we’ve played, we’ve actually nullified the opposition fairly well, and been able to hurt them on the rebound and attack the other way.”

Heathmont will open their 2025 campaign with a home match against Templestowe, followed up by a fascinating clash between the last two years’ runners-up against the Blues at Croydon.

After three tough years in Division Two, including a winless 2023 season, the Jets Senior Women have found their footing in Division Three.

A deep run last year announces the Heathmont women’s side as having found their level, and as being a major threat to their opponents in 2025.

In his first year of coaching the side, Adam Sullivan’s expectations of his squad grew with each passing week last year.

“We started of with the goal of just winning the game after having two pretty poor seasons. Then as the season went on the goalposts started changing, and by the end of it we found ourselves deep in finals, and as everyone knows you’ve got to be in it to win it. We gave ourselves every chance we could, and unfortunately in the Prelim we fell one point short. Wasn’t quite enough, but promising signs last year.”

That loss in the Preliminary Final came at the hands of Coldstream, the eventual runners-up to Mooroolbark. Heathmont’s finals berth came after a strong season, racking up eight wins, and a finals victory against the formidable South Croydon development team. The morale of the team was noticeably higher, leading to sustained engagement throughout the year.

“Division Three was the right choice for us in the end, obviously. In terms of players rocking up each week, I think it was becoming less of a chore, and more of an exciting thing for the girls. They really enjoyed training, numbers didn’t really dwindle throughout the year, and at games they were raring to go. So that was pretty good for those individuals that had been around for the two seasons prior, and had gone through those struggles.”

The increased involvement has had a dramatic effect on the number of players Heathmont can muster, leading to the creation of a development team which will play in the newly-established Division 5.

“(The increased engagement) obviously playing a big factor. We do have a pretty strong on- and off-field culture, and that’s played a big part in friends of players coming down, whether they’re players that have played before, or just wanted to give it a go because they’ve heard good things. It’s definitely played a big factor in expanding into the development side. It’s only going to get bigger and better from here.”

Heathmont as a club has embraced the women’s side and, as Sullivan explains, taken pride in the successes of the team in 2024.

“The club’s been great, there’s been a really big buy-in for the women’s programme, there’s been full support throughout the process of wanting to get up that second side. Once we knew we had numbers that were close enough they put their full backing behind us,"

"Even from the senior men’s playing group – the Thursday night before our Prelim as we were walking off the training track, they all got together and Jordan Haynes (senior captain of Heathmont men’s) said a few words about how proud they were of the group. I know based on conversations with the girls how much that meant. Heathmont is a really good place to be at the moment.”

With the large influx of new players, this preseason is an important one for the women’s side at HE Parker, as it requires the new faces to be briefed on the gameplan, and find their place in the side. One of the hallmarks of Heathmont in 2024 was their ability to run out games, and this fitness has been improved upon thought the preseason. 

“Like everyone goes through, you’ve got your skill development process, we’re big on building fitness, tweaking the gameplan a little bit, making sure the girls are all on board with that. I’ve spent plenty of time coaching, whether it’s set plays we might bring in, defensive structures, or the way we transition the ball,"

"Preseason’s been pretty straight forward in that sense. With the fitness side of things we’re really trying to ramp it up again, we pride ourselves on being a fit side that’s able to run out four quarters of footy, and I think that showed onfield last year. We want this year to be no different.”

Heathmont have scored a few big name recruits for season 2025, which come with some well earned accolades from previous years in the competition.

“Loz (Lauren Demarte) speaks for herself – back-to-back runner-up league best and fairest down at Nunawading, so that’s a massive one for us, a really good family friend as well. We tried to get her last year, but unfortunately weren’t able to do so."

"But even Caitlin Sharpcoming across from Croydon North MLOC, that’s going to fill a bit of a void down back, and give a bit more physicality around the footy. She’s going to be massive. On top of that we’ve also managed to get Vanessa Nolan down from Croydon North, Ava Seeely’s come across from Knox, she’s really impressed me so far this preseason. She can give Emily Eversteyn a chop out in ruck, or go down forward as well.”

Heathmont girls have been finding success in lower age groups, as well as in the senior side, and Sullivan is looking to capitalise on that. The integration of the younger age groups with the senior squad has been an important aspect of ensuring Heathmont’s future success.

“It was a massive thing, really trying to bridge the gap between that transition from under 18s to senior footy, getting them involved early where we can, and giving them that experience onfield. I think next year we’re expecting ten to fourteen girls aging out and coming up, so that’ll be big for us. If we can keep that bridging in place it’ll go a long way,"

"Even things we’ve implemented like an under 18s mentor programme – we give the option to all the senior players if they want to opt in and be a mentor to those girls, and then vice-versa the under 18s get the choice if they’re looking for a mentor they can also opt in to it. We try to get them around the ranks pretty early”.

“That’s come in this year. Tony Voss, coach of the development side, he’s been great working with me last year, and we really wanted to get that in place and make it a place that the girls want to stick around in the future.”

The outlook on the short term is looking bright, and Sullivan is hoping that will translate into future successes for the Jets’ women’s team.

“Making finals again is our goal, and to be there on the last day of the year would be a massive achievement. But I think long term it’s all about ensuring that we’re able to keep these two sides on the park, and keep this women’s programme growing into what we hope it can be.”

Heathmont will open their season playing against Mitcham in a home game at HE Parker.