Heathcote sign Zak Saad and James Orr for next season

In a coup for the Saints the team has signed midfielder Zak Saad and ruckman James Orr.

Saad joins from Rupertswood in the Essendon District league and was their best and fairest this season while also making the team of the year in Division 1 in the competition.

Orr joins from Kyneton in the Bendigo league after being the Tigers captain for the past two years.

They join a club who made this year’s grand final but lost to Mount Pleasant in the decider.

“Zak played with me a few years ago at Hadfield Football Club,” Heathcote coach Andrew Saladino said.

“We’ve always kept in contact and I followed his footy and what he’s been up to the past few years.

“I noticed they (Rupertswood) were having a walkout and I contacted Zak and asked where he was at with his footy and it was good timing.

“He’s pretty keen, he’s played country footy before and really enjoyed it.

“He’s keen to have another year of country footy.”

Saladino said signing someone of Saad’s quality was an area of focus for the Saints after assessing the loss in the grand final.

“I felt like especially after grand final day, clearly the number one thing was not having a ruckman,” he said.

“Also I feel like we probably lacked that one more classy mid.

“We just felt like if we could get another A-grader (like Zak) in to help some of our other mids it would go a long way.

“Zak is that type of player who can also win a game in five minutes of football.”

Saladino said Orr would be valuable on and off the field for the team.

“He wanted to stay playing country footy up this way,” he said.

“He’s one of the good ruckman in the Bendigo league, it’s massive for us.

“I think with James it is more about his leadership as well.

“We’ve got a young group so to have someone with his experience come in and a bit more on field leadership, it will go a long way.”

But with the new signings will come bigger expectations for the club.

The team is expected to retain most of the list who got the Saints to the grand final.

With Orr and Saad coming in the team is aiming high and has inspiration to do well from this year’s premiers, Mount Pleasant, who went from grand final loss to premiers in 2023.

Heathcote will be aiming to do the same.

“I’ve said to quite a few people when we were up at three-quarter-time that I felt confident heading into the last quarter,” Saladino said.

“But Mount had players who looked like they’d lost a grand final and certainly were not going to let it happen again.

“I think it is a really good fire in the belly for our young group.

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“In a way it hurts losing the grand final but it could be the best thing that could happen to us.

“Hopefully it drives the boys into next year.”

Saladino confirmed the club was still on the lookout for more players with more announcements to come soon.

Originally published as Heathcote sign Zak Saad and James Orr for next season