New midfielder to join MCUE

The athletic ball-winner is widely regarded as one of the finest players in the Sapphire Coast competition and he took out Pambula’s best-and-fairest award last season and was also second in the league best-and-fairest count.

The tall midfielder will move to the city in the coming weeks and commence training with the Goannas.

The recruitment of Rogers comes hot on the heels of MCUE signing Donvale duo Col Sanbrook and Andrew Pettigrove while the club has also added assistant-coach Nic Casey to the list for 2014.

MCUE coach Nathon Irvin was ecstatic with the signing of Rogers and said the exciting 21-year-old would add even more depth to the Goannas midfield, which will already feature the likes of Sanbrook, Harry Collins and James and Stace Creasy.

“From all accounts he is a tall and skilful player in the midfield,” Irvin said.

“We are very pleased to be able to welcome him to the club.

“It has been a really positive pre-season for us so far with some quality players signing on and great numbers at training as well.”

After being eliminated in the opening week of the finals series last year, MCUE will be looking to push deeper into September in 2014.

The club has added the important signings of Sanbrook, Pettigrove, Casey and Rogers to offset the loss of star forward Ryan Price while Dean Jones, Nick Baggio, Blake Aichinger, Scott Burge, and Joe and James Scott have all left MCUE to play with Farrer League outfit East Wagga-Kooringal.

MCUE started training in November and the Goannas have been training three times per week over the past two months with a heavy emphasis on fitness.

MCUE has regularly had more than 35 players at training and Irvin said he had been impressed by the enthusiasm and fitness level of the playing group.

“The boys have been working really hard since November,” Irvin said.

“We have had a lot of young guys training and we are now starting to get some of the older players there as well.”

MCUE will play at least two trial games in late March in preparation for the club’s first-round assignment against 2013 runner-up Collingullie-Ashmont-Kapooka at Mangoplah Sportsground on April 12.