Yarra Valley Water InFocus 2026 | Vermont

By Josh Ward.

Both Vermont senior men’s and senior women’s programs are well placed to improve on their 2025 performances this coming season.

Under new coach Matt Adolph, Vermont’s senior men’s side had a rollercoaster start to a new era.

Whilst they snared eight wins last year, it wasn’t enough for the Eagles as they missed finals for the second time in the past four seasons and the fourth time this century.

Adolph returns for his second season at the helm, stating this offseason has seen a high investment in its strength and conditioning program after an injury riddled 2025.

“We’re definitely in a better place than we were this time last year. Helps having consistency and (having a) strength and conditioning guy two times a week,” Adolph said.

The Eagles have also invested in GPS trackers, with that plus a strength and conditioning coach helping Vermont’s men’s program so far this offseason.

“The young group is super keen. Our older guys, they’ve surprised me in terms of how much missing finals hurt.

“The motivation in the group has gone to another level, which is really pleasing to see.”

Like some Premier Division clubs this offseason, the Eagles have seen a fair bit of list turnover, with Tyson Calder, Fraser Smith, Kane Emery and Griffith Julian among their departures.

Some young and experienced talent has come into the fold though, including Heathmont duo Harry Isaacs and Ayhan Bajramov plus Louis Hodder from VAFA club Fitzroy.

“In terms of those guys, they’re probably the gap that we had in our program regarding some experience. It’s good to get those guys.”

Ex-Port Adelaide big man Brynn Teakle has also aligned with Vermont having signed with Collingwood’s VFL side.

“His aspirations are to play AFL again. We’ll support him in his VFL endeavours, if we can see him get drafted midseason that’d be a massive plus for him.

“It’s good that he’s aligned with us, he’s a ripping fella. First and foremost, he’s an outstanding character from the conversations I’ve had with him. We want to get good characters into our football club.”

Ex-Dandenong Stingrays duo Callum Smith and Tairon Ah-Mu have also aligned with the Eagles having signed on with Sandringham and Casey Demons’ VFL programs.

“The number one thing (these guys bring) are training standards. Obviously the standard is different at the VFL and Brynn’s had a taste at AFL level.

“Even though we don’t see a lot of them, we’ll see a fair bit of Harry Isaacs. His training standards have come over, he’s vocal, he’s challenging other individuals, which only helps our program.”

There’s plenty of youth set to come through the ranks this year, with 11 players from Vermont’s Under 19s program coming up into the senior fold this coming season.

“We’ve also got an influx of 17 year olds, both U17s made grand finals as well. We’ve got some talent there.

“We hope that the 19s program is as strong as it was last year…I’ve also identified that I’ve got to be a little bit more involved with the development aspect of it.”

With some positive change this offseason, the aspiration for Adolph and the Eagles men’s program is to play finals once again.

“I’m not saying if we don’t make finals it’s a failure, but I will say that our group is driven enough to aspire to play finals.

“Our form showed in the latter part of the year when we won four of our last five games shows that when we’re fit and healthy that we can definitely compete with those top sides.

“The stuff that we’ve invested in off the field, our program is a lot stronger than it was last year. I think it’s really going to help us.”

Vermont kicks off its season on the first Sunday of the year with a trip to Zerbes Reserve to face a Doncaster East side who they’ve had the wood over since the Lions promotion to the Premier Division.

Meanwhile Vermont’s senior women’s program comes into this year following a solid and successful 2025 season.

While its Premier Division side registered five wins and fell short of finals, the Vermont Gold side had a successful return with a premiership in Division 4 having started last year in Division 5.

Chris Clark returns for his third season as head coach of the women’s program, which has so far had strong numbers on the training track.

“There’s not as many new faces this year, so I’m not having to shuffle around this time around,” Clark said.

“There’s a bit more continuity, which has been great. Last year we had 30 plus go through the senior side, we debuted 30 plus as well.

“You sort of go ‘it’s so many new faces’ whereas this year it’ll only be 10-15. That’ll be a lot easier and more manageable.”

Most of last year’s group has re-signed, with the exception of former Team of the Year members  Madeline Johns and Holly Cullen who have hung up the boots.

But they’ve managed to bring in players externally, with Clark saying that their new recruits have settled in nicely to life at Vermont.

“(The new faces) become part of the furniture really fast, they’re a really inclusive group like all groups, but we’re very lucky (with this group).

“It’s a pretty easy place to find a good group of new footy mates. They hang out together outside of football and they have a blast. New players fit in pretty quickly, which is great.”

Whilst the current playing group has played a key role in welcoming new faces, Eagles legend David Banfield has also helped with building a strong program and culture.

“He doesn’t care whether it’s the men’s, women’s or netball program. He is Vermont through and through, his heart beats purple and gold.”

“People from other clubs are blown away with things that Vermont can offer that other clubs can’t because Dave Banfield goes ‘I had this problem in 2006, I’m going to make sure these guys never have that trouble’. So he solves a problem before you’ve even had it.”

This year is also set to see more junior girls come through to play senior women’s footy for Vermont, but not quite as many as last year.

“We get players like Samantha Adam and Sienna Reidy, who was a Talent League player with Eastern Ranges.”

There’s also set to be more competition for spots this year with Vermont Gold set to play in Division 3 this coming season.

“Now in Division 3, they’re coming up against Premier Division players in each team each week. Not just one, they’ll have a handful of them.”

With its program continuing to go from strength-to-strength, Clark is hopeful the side will be competitive once again in season 2026.

“Every game we played last year, we were in it. We either 50% of the quarters or we had a quarter where they smashed us, we were still a kick away here or there.

“It was one of those seasons where even though (the Premier Division side) finished near the bottom of the ladder, we were in most games but we just couldn’t find a way to get across the line.

“We’ve addressed some of that stuff, we’ve targeted our preseason training on how we want to play our game in 2026.”