Yarra Valley Water InFocus 2026 | North Ringwood

By Davis Harrigan.

North Ringwood were one step away from the Division One Grand Final in 2025, only just missing out to eventual premiers South Belgrave in the preliminary final.

What that has translated to, however, is a playing group hungry to go again in 2026. They’re young, they’ve been working hard, and have started to find the right groove.

Senior coach Matt Price, in his second year at the helm, has had time to develop and build something since the start of 2025. From stepping into the relative unknown a little over 12 months ago, to refining the style that really began to thrive at the end of last season, there’s renewed drive as round one approaches.

“At the start of the year, it was a little bit slow. I got them playing a new game plan, new style, and they were taking it all in, but it was a bit messy and frenetic,” Price said.

“We kept working on it through the year and just got better and better. Obviously, the excitement built when we got into finals, then we won a final and then a second final, all of a sudden the belief grows, and we’ll definitely take that belief into this season.”

It wasn’t always easy though, coming in as a new starter with not much to go on - there was plenty of stuff that had to be pieced together like a jigsaw, but it’s definitely starting to come to fruition.

“Last year being my first year was a bit of a building year, I really didn’t know what I was walking into,” Price said.

“It was really just let’s get into it and see what we’ve got under the hood and have a go, and build from there. We’re in excellent nick for this season, because we haven’t lost any players and all those guys are another year older, and have another full pre-season of the game plan we’re building on.”

The Saints have been extremely fortunate in being able to retain just about all of the playing group, and while nothing is immediate, Price indicated  there’s definitely an air about the group that will likely bolster the 2026 mentality after how North Ringwood finished off last year.

“The players don’t really believe it and buy in until they see it work,” he said.

“Getting to finals, and winning some finals, and seeing how close we were, I think they started to believe that what we’re doing is actually right and working. Now we’ve been able to get into a full pre-season, there’s no doubt about what we’re doing - it’s just get into it.”

Being able to translate words into actions in training is one thing; doing it on the field is an entirely different beast. However, Price has seen a big step up in the level of communication that the players have worked on over the pre-season, believing it will bring a better brand of footy.

“A lot of it is left to me to be able to give most of the feedback on where we are and what we’re doing right, but you can start to see this pre-season that they understand what they’re supposed to be doing and explaining that to other players.

“I do expect us to be a lot more vocal on field this year than last year, they’ve done a lot of work on where they should be all the time and how they should be playing and in different situations, so they should be aware and be able to communicate that between themselves now, which is what we want.”

The playing list at the Saints is in a position where depth and development last year and into this season have meant it wasn’t necessary to find a star player, Price instead putting the focus on what was already available to him.

“We felt we didn’t have too many gaps, and had good coverage in every position. We didn’t really need to go and recruit a gun player in a certain role,” he said.

“All we’ve done this year is allowed the youth to come through, and we’ve added more depth in each role. Now, we’ll have more players to be able to fill each position rather than top up with outside players.

“I think we’ve got a good complement of players throughout our list that are running around in seniors and reserves.”

It’s also a prime opportunity for those coming up the ranks to give themselves every chance to impress - North Ringwood gave plenty in the other men’s sides a chance to shine last year.

“Last year we played 48 players in the seniors. The good thing about that is most of those guys have taken on what we’ve given them and they’ve improved,” Price said.

A key reason for being able to keep the momentum and enjoyment is creating something that doesn’t just gloss over everything 100 times and expect greatness, but instead fostering a culture and dynamic where the players feel is a place to enjoy.

“We always make training fun and make the place an environment they want to come to and improve. The good thing about last year was we were able to keep getting better, so the guys could see the improvement,” Price said.

“You have to make the place fun and energetic. The young guys do that themselves, they create that environment, but you’ve got to make it a safe place for them.”

Beaconsfield looms as the all-important round one challenge at Holm Park. However, with Mitcham back in the fold, and everyone else vying for the critical ladder positions early, Price highlighted the competition could be fierce, especially for those who finished lower on the ladder last year and are keen to take the next step.

“Everyone keeps telling me it’s the most even division, and from what I saw last year, I couldn’t agree more. The sides down the bottom might’ve been building and had some young guys through, and I think they’ll improve,” he said.

“That’ll be our first challenge, round one go to Beaconsfield and win, never easy. But the guys are confident in what they’re doing and they can win every week; now we’ve got to go over there and put it all together. Round one always throws up some strange ones, so we’ll play our best and see how they go.”

Aaron Fenton will again lead the Saints onto the field as captain for 2026.

Here comes the premier(ship) test

The North Ringwood women are about to make the step up into Premier Division after securing last years Division One Premiership - it was the ultimate redemption after being pipped at the post in 2024 for the Saints, and their first women’s premiership since 2019. 

Coach Jake Ireland emphasised that while it would have been fantastic to be in the top flight in 2025, the extra 12 months has actually been an added benefit to the side that snared last years flag.

“It would have been nice to go up and compete in premier division last year, but if anything, the group that were successful last year got a great deal of confidence and improving, just been able to play as such a united team,” Ireland said.

“It wasn’t the result we were after when we lost to Park Orchards, but we gave ourselves the best opportunity to win the flag last year. It was so great to be successful because now we think we’re really well prepared to go up into premier when that’s probably not something we were super confident with last year.”

It’s the Sharks that Ireland’s troops will come up against to open the season - but that doesn’t stop the normal preparation and training, which is thriving thanks to the incredible attendances for each session.

“We try and really make sure that as a standard, we’re really ready to go round one. In previous years, we’ve been really well setup for a round one match, and part of that is due to the large numbers that we have, they we’re able to do such big, competitive training sessions,” he said.

“We always put an emphasis on starting the season really well. Playing Park Orchards is just that little bit extra motivation to make sure that we’re up to the level right away, and we have a great rivalry with them.”

The Saints will be fielding a third women’s team this season, and with the attendance up at training, the other emphasis has been on the premier group imparting as much experience as possible to those just joining.

“Right now it’s really just helping our third team, all those that are coming in, that they’re getting the experience of training with a premier quality team,” Ireland said.

“It’s such a great feeling rocking up to training and there’s 45, 50 people there, and everyone gets along really well - it helps the group be a unit.”

Those numbers primarily consist of the group that got it done last year, along with other players that make up the three sides, with little, if almost no change across the entire roster.

“Our retention rate is fantastic, we’ve only lost Sarah Humm who’s moved up to Queensland, but outside of that we’ve brought in a few more players which is always handy,” Ireland said.

“It’s a big credit to the premier group, where we’re not going into premier division with a different effort that we had in the grand final. Everyone that played in that grand final knows how strong a team it is.”

With the season only being 14 rounds before finals, and the intensity of local footy - particularly in the women’s circles - really starting to ramp up the fitness and endurances over the last few seasons, it’s been front of mind that a lot of the onus is on the players to be putting in their own work.

“As much as it is a team sport, it’s important that this group of athletes are putting themselves in the best position to have a good season,” Ireland said.

“As we only see them a couple of times a week and then on game days, it’s in their hands and that they’re doing the right thing by themselves. With so many people at training, it helps to have good role models around, and if you want to do the extras like the gym or recovery, there’s often a bigger group of people willing to do the same sort of thing.”

While Rachel Iacuone will take on the captaincy role solo this season after co-captaining the side with Tayla Deane to last years premiership, there’s still been a big uptick in players vying for a bigger role within the side.

“We’ve been really impressed with the number of people stepping up for leadership positions. This time last year, we weren’t really sure who was going to fill our leadership group, now we’re in a position where we’ve actually so many people putting their hand up,” Ireland said.

“That’s a big credit to the girls, where there’s so many people willing to step up, communicate, and take control.”

Ireland isn’t shirking the responsibilities of the leap up to the top division either, but has placed faith in his players to take it right up to the teams who are already there.

“It’s one of my biggest tests to make sure there group is on their A game every week. The season is only 14 games, so you don’t really have too many games to waste. This season, with more competitive teams, we do think we can absolutely match it with everyone and win as many games as possible, but that’s going to require being on every week,” he said.

“It’s a good challenge, because there’s some teams we’ve never played against before, and it’ll be a new test. We’re really excited to get up there and bring our best, no matter who our opponent is.”