Family and friends were behind one of the league's biggest recruiting coups in years.
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Reigning Williamstown best and fairest Leigh Masters and fellow Seagulls' life member Willie Wheeler will play for Yarrawonga next year.
"My girlfriend's sister and her husband are living up in Yarrawonga, so I had that tie there and being good mates with 'Wheels' and Mark Whiley, that played into it as well," Masters said.
Wheeler will join his brother and two-time Pigeons' best and fairest Harry.
"There's obviously the brother connection and my girlfriend, her family's from Yarrawonga as well," Wheeler said.
"Mark being the coach, we've been really good mates and I lived with him in Melbourne for about three years. I played with him at the Bushies and struck up a friendship."
Whiley's influence again highlights why the best recruiters are the best coaches.
The former GWS and Carlton midfielder turns 27 on Sunday, so the Pigeons will have three guns at the ideal age to play their best football.
"You'd like to think so, you always like to think you're going upwards," Wheeler said.
"What we've learnt at 'Willy' (Williamstown), we're still keen to play good footy and help the young blokes improve their footy as well."
And the ball magnet midfielder says defender Masters will be the perfect teacher.
"I think anyone who's seen him play knows how good he is," Wheeler said of his fellow Williamstown life member.
"He's a bit of a Nick Haynes-type (GWS star), he reads the ball as good as anyone I've seen and everyone who plays with him knows how courageous he is and what a good team-mate he is."
And Wheeler's long-time team-mate also had tremendous praise for his great friend.
"He's probably the best stoppage player I've played with," Masters said.
"He's definitely in the top couple of midfielders in the VFL."
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Interestingly, Masters confirmed that Williamstown's gut-wrenching loss to Box Hill in the 2018 preliminary final potentially delayed the pair's arrival to the O and M.
"Yeah, I think it did," he said.
"We'd probably been talking about how long we were going to keep playing VFL, it's such a great club and it's a hard place to leave, but definitely losing that preliminary final by a point left a sour taste."
Unfortunately, the pair's dream of departing the Seagulls with a flag were dashed with another thrilling loss to Richmond in this season's grand final.
Yarrawonga will be looking to snap a seven-year premiership drought in 2020.