Midfield recruit ready to dig in after a season on the sidelines

Dylan Cross has re-joined Allansford ahead of the 2024 Warrnambool and District league season.

The father-of-three, who works close to the club at the Saputo factory, signed with the Cats on Monday, December 11.

He spent three years at Allansford prior to a one-year stint with Russells Creek in 2022.

Cross, who has also played for East Warrnambool, then decided to step away.

"I lost a little bit of interest for the game and have a young family at home and wanted to have a season away from the game, just to find a bit of love for it again," he told The Standard.

"There's a few familiar faces still here and 'Nowellsy' (coach Tim Nowell) was sort of helping Ben Price when he was coaching when I was here last time, so he reached out to me and I was pretty keen."

The Warrnambool-based Cross, who is dad to Jaxon, 7, Abel, 4, and Aaliyah, 2, said the Cats were the right fit for him and wife Mardi.

"I work at the factory out here, a shift-work roster," he said.

"Working out here made it pretty easy (to recommit). It made me keen to come back out and have another crack at it."

Cross, 29, believes his style of playing - extracting the ball from the packs - will complement Allansford's younger cohort.

"I am an inside midfielder so hopefully with a good pre-season under my belt I can get fit enough to put myself back into the middle and try and make a difference to the side," he said.

"I kept an eye (on the competition) when I had the 12 months off, just the sides around the league, and seeing the young kids they (the Cats) have coming through is pretty exciting."

Nowell, who is a non-playing coach, is pleased with the Cats' recruiting drive.

Cross has joined Justin Fedley (South Rovers) and Jordan Boyle (Koroit) in the off-season as they strive to make finals following a near miss in 2023.

"We've brought some more mature bodies into the group to help our onball brigade," Nowell said.

"Our under 18s had their first training night tonight and there's a four or five of those kids who will probably be in our senior side most of the year."

Nowell said Allansford's commitment to pre-season could not be questioned while it was running training sessions at its home base and Deakin University which "is in pretty good nick".

"It's soft so any of the boys who are starting to get a bit sore in the legs, we're saying 'just train at Deakin' and there's some we only want training one night a week not two leading into Christmas," he said.