Boars

Coach: Campo

Home Ground: The Pig Pen

Ranking history:

• 2010 – 4th
• 2011 – 3rd
• 2012 – 2nd
• 2013 – 1st
• 2014 – 6th
• 2015 – 9th
• 2016 – 1st
• 2017 – 9th
• 2018 – 2nd
• 2019 – 6th
• 2020 – 9th
• 2021 – 3rd
• 2022 – 2nd
• 2023 – 5th

Team/Coach bio: The Boars are a club with an impressive history. They’ve made the finals countless times, and after a agonising loss in 2012, bounced back and went on to win a flag in 2013. Campo’s ruthless coaching style is admired by others – with his ability to turnover his entire playing list every 2 seasons is both impressive and intimidating.

Camporeale commenced a rebuild in 2014 (just months after winning his first flag) which had critics questioning his sanity. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out for the future of the Boars – they have a future key defender in Scharenberg who is being groomed as a replacement for ex-Boars premiership defender Colin Garland and some other prized recruits like Jack Watts.

It’s also worth noting that while undergoing this brutal rebuild, the coach has found the time to run the league as commissioner with the greatest of ease, and even found some time on the side to spam each coaches mailbox and Whatsapp with trade offers. A truly commendable effort that often goes unrecognised and under appreciated by his peers.

2015: Another year of building a dangerous playing list. Narrowly avoided a spoon as a result. Peter Wright endured a short tenure at the club but could be re-drafted if you believe the hype Campo spews about ‘Two Metre Peter’.

The coach has promised a dramatic improvement in 2016, openly stating he’ll finish higher than the reigning premier (Warriors) in 2016. The sub rule disappearing will also help this club climb back to where it used to be.

2016: Wow. The Boats went from 9th to 1st, claiming a 2nd league premiership. The club has largely the dramatic improvement of Zach Merrett (as well as the absence of half of the Essendon playing group to suspension).

It was a miraculous run where the Boats took home the minor premiership too. Everyone was tipping them to fall, and the #straightsets finals predictions were a constant threat to the club, but the coach held strong and took yet another premiership (his 2nd).

2017 shapes as an interesting year with Zach Merrett’s output surely to be the biggest question mark. Either way, the boats will be amongst it.

2017: Scratch that. They dropped way off. 9th place. Missed the spoon by percentage.

Nearly became the Leicester City of the Keeper League, although plenty of coaches are saying what happened was enough to take that title.

A vicious fixture didn’t help Campo defend his title, combine that with some only average scoring and the ladder will chew you up and spit you out.

Camporeale is already turning to 2018 where he’s hopeful of players like Blakely gaining DEF status and help sail the Boats back up the ladder.

2018: The season was off to a shaky start with Blakely missing out on defender status, but Angus Brayshaw thankfully gained it for the coaches mental state.

The club hovered around the middle part of the ladder but made a late push with huge consecutive streak of wins, and scraped into finals on percentage, then waltzed into the GF only to be crushed by the Warriors.

A noble effort. Expect the Boats to be amongst it again next season.

2019: The club struggled to make an impact, with injuries hitting the squad extremely hard, with the club looking favourite to collect it’s maiden spoon, but managed to dodge this embarrassing accolade and scrape to 6th. The coach is confident this was a blip on the radar and the Boats will be back in a big way next season.

2020: The club made strides internally with youth, but struggled to field a side due to injuries and players falling out of the 22. Club icons Connor Blakely and Alex Witherden couldn’t break into their respective actual AFL sides until later in the year, which hampered Camporeale badly. They will be optimistic for 2020 if these players remain on the park.

The coach also promised he would NEVER collect a spoon. Interesting.

2021: The clear favourite heading into finals after a dominant year, finishing 2nd on the ladder and ‘loading up’ late in the year further stoked flag favouritism calls. A form slump of some players in crucial finals games ended up resulting in the Boats being eliminated in straight sets, a remarkable turnaround. The side is still well placed for next season and the coach will be seeking some almighty redemption.

2022: It was another year like last, the form team of the competition – finished the year as minor premiers, and unlike last year – went straight into the Grand Final after knocking off the Warriors week 1 of finals. Unfortunately on the big stage, the Boats spluttered a little and lost despite Warriors carrying a donut – it was a rough way to go out after such a promising year. They will be back again in 2023, no doubt.

2023: Fighting for the spoon after dropping a game to Blaze in round 11… scrapped into finals with some unexpected wins against Snakes and Turtles.

Got some luck when losing in round 17 but jumping from 6th to 5th on %. On their day the boats can compete with the best but with very little consistency all year finals is probably about par.

Theme song:

Favourite opposition player within the league:

Mitch Duncan (devastated to have on traded this guy after selecting him as a rookie in the inaugural draft)

Favourite Keeper ‘moment’:

When a particular coach was asked to send an email on behalf of the league raising concerns that several coaches had. Then after it was sent, everyone left him out to dry saying they had no part in it #dogs

Worst player you’ve ever drafted:

Colin Garland (premiership player at the boars)

Player you’re most proud of drafting:

Tom Rockliff (as a rookie) before I on traded him for SCOTLAND! #guru