KEY Yarrawonga signing Steve McKee has admitted the Pigeons have a lot of ground to make up if they are to challenge Ovens and Murray powerhouse Albury this season.
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The former AFL and Myrtleford bigman watched Albury dismantle the Pigeons twice last year, with the Tigers’ 77-point demolition in the 2009 grand final fresh in his memory.
McKee, 31, said this week his new club had moved on from the harrowing defeat, but is in no doubt the Pigeons have to improve considerably to challenge for the O and M premiership.
“I don’t think it (the grand final) has been spoken about too much at the club,” he said this week.
“I think we hope we have (closed the gap) ... I guess every club is trying to reel Albury in.
“The only two (O and M) games I watched last year were both Yarra against Albury and they (Albury) were very, very impressive — I was a bit blown away actually, especially in the grand final, just how hard they ran, so we have to make up a bit of ground.”
While last year’s runner up has lost leading goalkickers Tim Hargreaves and Mark Keenan as well as senior players Nic O’Bryan, John McHenry, John Lucas, Ash Thomson and Bernard Price, the additions to Craig Ednie’s squad appear to have the Pigeons on track to remain at the pointy end of the ladder.
McKee will be joined at J.C Lowe Oval by fellow Aberfeldie star Clint Runnalls, a former Yarrawonga premiership player, while Marcus McMillan, Michael Egan, Sam Keenan, Chris Gooley, Matthew O’Brien and Cameron Thyer have also joined the Pigeons’ nest.
McKee, who played 84 games at Richmond and Collingwood between 1998-2004 including the Magpies’ 2002 grand final loss to Brisbane, has been training with a group of Yarrawonga and Echuca players at Arden Street oval in North Melbourne this preseason.
The former Carlton ruck coach met his new teammates briefly before Christmas and said it was an easy decision signing with Yarrawonga as opposed to his former O and M club Myrtleford, where he played in 2006.
“I know a lot of the Yarra crew, with my family from up that way ... Craig (Ednie) is my cousin and last year he tried to get me but I was an assistant at Aberfeldie and I’d already committed to them,” he said.
“I stayed there for the year but in the back of my mind I thought I’d like to have a run with Craig — time’s ticking away and if it didn’t happen this year it might never happen.”
