The Adelaide Plains Football League (APFL) season kicks off on Saturday, with seven sides vying for a premiership in the shortened 2020 season.

Two sides, Hummocks-Watchman and Balaklava, have pulled out of the competition amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with Yorke Peninsula Football League side Bute coming into the fold for this season.

With the reigning premier Hommucks-Watchman not defending their crown this year, it is set to be a wild dash to the premiership.

Here is The Bunyip's full APFL 2020 season preview.

Angle Vale

AFTER consecutive seventh-place finishes, Angle Vale comes into 2020 in the middle of a long-term overhaul of the club in an effort to get younger, and build its A-grade side organically.

Coach Troy Treverton acknowledged that the growing pains involved with such a task are significant, but that his playing group has bought in and are excited to get on the park figure it out.

“We’ve taken the stance that we want long term players,” Treverton said.

“We don’t want to try and recruit too many ‘quick fix’ solutions, and we’ve put a focus on building the culture of the club.

“We’ve been able to maintain most of our playing group from last year, and even the imported players have become part of the furniture.”

Treverton spoke about the issues that face a young side, but said he feels that he can see the light at the end of the tunnel, with young players coming into this season having 30-plus A-grade games under their belts.

“Something we’re working on is the ability to know when to play fast,” he said.

“Our game is built around speed, but last year we probably played with it too much, too often, and that cost us turnovers and gave away really avoidable goals.

“We’re working to eliminate those turnovers in poor positions on the ground, and we were a bit gung-ho last year, so it’s about getting a bit more defensively minded, and I think recruiting a couple of experienced players will help there.”

Those new recruits include Eastern Park duo, ruckman Rob Kovacic and on-baller Matthew Paul, as well as Willaston utility Scott Blundell, and returning juniors Frank Notto from Golden Grove and Josh Carter from Port Districts.

Two Wells 

COMING off three consecutive grand final appearances, including flags in 2017 and 2018, Two Wells enters the season as hot favourites as its opponents in the past two grand finals, Balaklava and Hummocks-Watchman, have both withdrawn from the season.

The Roosters picked up some handy players in the off-season, including centre half-back Jacob Thompson from Central District’s reserves, and 2018 premiership player Luke Barnett returning from Woodville-West Torrens.

However, coach Matt Camplin said a big part of the team improving will be the players that have left.

“We had a couple of blokes last year, one from SANFL who came in unfit thinking he’d come here and dominate, and the other bloke was a good player but he became more worried about getting his own kicks and possessions than playing team footy,” he said.

“That didn’t really sit well with our team, so it’s definitely a case (of addition by subtraction). “Sometime you have the best team on paper, but it doesn’t work because they don’t work for each other, don’t run, don’t shepherd.

“The team we’ve got now doesn’t care who gets the ball, we’re all in it together.”

Camplin said he feels his side is uniquely prepared for such an interrupted season, because the club has a culture of self-motivation born from years of preparing for teams on different ends of the talent spectrum.

“Everyone actually wanted Balaklava and Hummocks-Watchman to play, but one thing we pride ourselves on is being a player-driven team internally, it’s not about who we’re playing against each week,” he said.

“We’ve got a few teams in this league that are on the lower end of the scale, and they’re even harder to get up and play against because people just go ‘well we beat these guys by 100 or 200 points, so why would I train this week?’

“So we’ve got this culture of getting on each other’s backs and making sure we push and enjoy being around each other, and make it less of a chore to come out and work.”

The Roosters will be relying on reigning best-and-fairest winner Jamie Humphrys to be a consistent driving force in the midfield as the side is expected to fight it out with Mallala for position as top dog.

Mallala

HAVING not missed the finals in over a decade, this past season’s fourth-place finish and first-round finals exit is about as low as the club has been in a while, but coach Jason Earl is confident his side isn’t going anywhere.

Earl recalled how his side was able to beat the other three top-four sides during the season, but failed to come through when it mattered most.

“It was actually a pretty good game (against Hummocks-Watchman), but from memory they just got off the leash a bit in the second quarter,” Earl said.

“Being finals footy, that was the difference unfortunately.

“I felt we played much better footy, we beat everyone in the top-four, but unfortunately just didn’t get it right when it counted, so we missed a pretty big opportunity.”

Earl spoke about how Mallala has been successful for over a decade by focusing on continuity and holding the list together for a long time, but that the same group can only carry you for so long.

“We’ve been able to sustain a reasonably high level for the past 15-or-so years, and I guess you can probably put that down to having a really strong cohort of local guys come through and progress into the senior ranks.

“They stuck with us, and that was the first part, and I guess really the key is the ability for us to hold onto those guys and add to the group with some quite loyal imports with our recruits.

“The past couple of years has been a bit of a transition for us, because some of those older players are starting to retire and move on, and the challenge has been to try and maintain that standard while rebuilding the senior list.”

Led by reigning best-and-fairest Josh Seal, the Magpies are motivated to bounce back in a big way in 2020, and the expectations are high.

“I think it’s reasonable to expect that anything less than making finals would be an absolute failure, but my expectations are that we would definitely be pushing for a spot in the top-two this year,” Earl said.

“There wouldn’t be too many clubs that finished in the top half that aren’t aspiring to do that, but I think we’ve got to improve on our past two seasons, so top two or three.”

Hamley Bridge 

WITH its most recent win coming in round 12 of the 2016 season, Hamley Bridge has struggled on a historic level since winning the 2014 premiership.

In 2019, the Bombers finished with 447 points scored in 16 games, compared to 3331 points against, to finish with a percentage of 11.8, and failed to score half as many as the next-worst side, Angle Vale, who scored 928 total points.

Hayden Bubner toughed it out last year to finish in Hamley Bridge’s ‘bests’ 12 times in 16 matches, kicking 12 goals out of the midfield, including a bag of four.

The Bombers will be hoping to retain the services of Bradley Claxton, who managed to kick 18 goals in just eight matches, establishing himself as the side’s most damaging forward by a big margin as he kicked five at Virginia.

The club said in a statement on its Facebook page that it was firmly in the camp of playing the 2020 season, and never considered joining Balaklava and Hummocks-Watchman on the sidelines.

With Bute arriving as another recent struggler, from arguably a weaker competition in the Yorke Peninsula Football League, and Angle Vale remaining a tier below the mid-table, Hamley Bridge will have to give itself a chance of nabbing its first win in four calendar years if everything clicks.

The club did not respond to The Bunyip’s request for comment.

Bute 

BUTE will be the wildcard in this year’s APFL season after it arrived from the Yorke Peninsula Football League when it became clear its season would not go ahead – making it the only team in SA at the time to make the leap.

After collecting back-to-back-to-back wooden spoons from 2015-17, the Roosters moved up into the mid-table in 2019, and with a young group, club president Jarrad Cock said he couldn’t waste a year of development.

“One of the big reasons for why we wanted to continue playing is because we’ve got such a young group, with some senior colts back for their first year in seniors,” he said.

“For us not to play would have probably meant heading backwards from what we’re trying to build and achieve with this group.

“It was a big improvement last year after being down near the bottom for six or seven years.”

With a young group, Cock said the side will need big contributions from senior players, particularly in the midfield.

“Henry Trenorden is one of our really important senior players,” he said.

“Also Sam Trengove, who’s in his mid-30s, and he’s just Roosters through-and-through. He’ll spend a lot of time in the midfield for us and provide that toughness inside.”

While Bute will be entering a league with recent strugglers Hamley Bridge, and to a lesser extent Angle Vale, the club said the season will be judged on much more than final results.

“We have lost two recruits who went back to the Adelaide Footy League after the YPFL season was done, so that’s been hard for us, but it allows us to give our kids more game time which is important when we’re trying to get better as a core group.” Cock said.

“Winning games would be a big plus, obviously, but it’s not really our primary team goal for this season.

“We’re trying to make something of a very difficult season, and allowing us to have some home games at Bute is a really big thing for us.”

Cock said he expects the town of Bute, and even footy-starved neighbouring areas, to come and support the side representing the Yorke Peninsula region.

“I expect it to be abuzz really,” he said.

“It gives us a chance to hold a sponsors day, and do a ladies’ day, and with no other football really being played close to us, we could get some spectators we mightn’t usually see at a home game.”

United FC

AFTER it appeared set to be a rebuilding year, United FC received a boost when its reigning best-and-fairest winner, and runner-up, decided to return to the club for the 2020 season.

With perennial contenders Balaklava and Hummocks-Watchman out of the equation, the club is optimistic about its chances.

United’s football director James Rundle said Mallala and Two Wells will enter the season as the clear favourites, but he feels the Tigers could be best of the rest.

“Hamley Bridge might trail away a little bit, but between us, Angle Vale, Bute and Virginia, it wouldn’t surprise me if anyone finished top-four,” he said.

“Obviously with seven teams and a shorter season, you’d think four wins would be enough to play finals footy.

“With that being the case, it’s fair to say a good start will be crucial.”

As well as getting a chance to play for a flag, Rundle said the opportunity to play finals footy would be massive for the club as a whole.

“Obviously it’ll increase optimism for next year,” he said.

“It’d get a few more smiles around the place, and just make the club even more upbeat… it’d validate that we’re heading in the right direction.”

Having resumed training a month ago, Rundle was complimentary of the way players had looked after themselves during their time off, and despite still lacking junior numbers, the club feels 2020 could be a turning point.

Virginia

INCOMING A grade coach Denis Eaton is full of enthusiasm after inheriting a group who last tasted finals footy in 2017, saying in no uncertain terms “I just love it”.

With significant changes to the side, including big outs such as centre half-back Lee Stapleton and star best-and-fairest winning midfielder Daniel Stanley, it could potentially be a difficult year, but not for an optimist like Eaton.

“We were able to recruit Matthew Rankine who played 150 games for South Adelaide and won the Riverland Mail Medal this past year, and he’ll bring real quality into the guts for us,” Eaton said.

“We picked up his brother as well, Ronnie Rankine, which was really handy because both of those guys filled positions of need for us.”

With a long-term approach in mind, the club made a decision this year to focus on getting games into the more promising youngsters.

“There’s good local lads who had good years in 2019, like Joel Holloway,” he said.

“I think the way to go is the way we’re going, with trying to blood a bit more locally instead of worrying about too much heavy-duty recruiting.

“If you don’t start pushing through your locals then in three or four years you’re going to find you have a big age gap in your talent, and I think the club just had to bite the bullet and really put a focus on it.”

Eaton spoke about how he wasn’t meant to take the reins until 2021, but when it became clear the A grade gig was going to be on the table, he snatched it up.

“I love a challenge,” he said.

“I’ve coached a team (Balaklava) coming off a flag win.

“I’ve coached a team (Two Wells) coming off a wooden spoon.

“I think Virginia are in that mould now where they have some awesome locals still around with Brendon (Niklaus) who’s kicked a thousand goals in 10 years, Dylan Jessen and Hayden Ingram, and quality kids like Caleb Jones and Joel Holloway coming into their second and third years – that’s why I’m there.”

With so much turnover, the Rams may have the widest range of potential outcomes of anyone in the league.

For some, uncertainty is a scary word, but for Eaton, it just means opportunity.