Peel Thunder great Hayden Ballantyne has returned to the club in a new coaching role for the upcoming 2025 season.
Ballantyne’s inclusion is will bolster the Peel Thunder coaching stocks, as he joins the senior coaching staff as skills coach.
The former Docker started his AFL career down at David Grays Arena, which now has a wing named in his honour, before being drafted to Fremantle in 2008.
The 37-year-old played 80 WAFL games and 171 AFL games, and was Sandover and Tuckey Medallist after an outstanding 2008 season.
Peel Thunder Captain Ben Hancock says his side is ‘lucky’ to have the Dockers and Peel great back in the fold again.
“I think I’m probably one of the only ones that played with him now that everyone’s left,” he told SportFM.
“He’s fit in really well. He’s obviously got a great resume, so the boys look up to him and he’s teaching all the young boys how to go about things, playing senior footy.
“We’re really lucky to have him back down and to give up his time and help out that younger brigade.”
The WAFL Pre-Season League gets underway this weekend, with Peel playing Perth at Mineral Resources Park Saturday.
Here, the Thunder’s mostly unchanged setup will get a trial run, to see how they hold up ahead of their 2024 flag defence this season.
Hancock believes Peel are well-positioned to go back-to-back this season.
“Freo lost a few from our premiership side, and it’s always hard to get a gauge on who we’ll get and what our lineup will look like early days, but our Peel contingent’s pre-settled,” he said.
“We’ve got more experience and another preseason into the legs of the younger boys. I’m confident we can be right up there again this year.
“Obviously, everyone’s got new recruits and new squads and different teams.
“We’ve become the hunted now that we’re the reigning premiers and you always say that the back-to-back premierships are always the hardest one to win because everyone’s coming after you.
“Just looking forward to get stuck and into some oppo this weekend and full steam ahead for the season.”
Over the offseason, Peel lost Nathan Wilson who decided to retire from football entirely after more than 15 years of playing football at AFL and WAFL level.
After departing the Dockers in 2023, Wilson played one more season for Peel Thunder before decicing to hang up the boots for good.
The 32-year-old finished off his playing career as the club’s leading goal kicker and was a key player in Thunder’s flag campaign.
While a huge loss, Hancock is confident Thunder has the depth to cover it.
“His goal sense and his ability to kick goals is probably that medium-small forward was vital for us in our run last year,” he said.
“But we’ve got plenty of blokes that can step up into that role. We got Luen Colton and Brody Wemm in the reserves running around and they’ve built some really strong form over the last few years.
“A couple of injuries setbacks last year for them both, but they’ve had a great preseason.”
“We’ve got the cavalry there. We just can’t wait to see them perform on the stage.”