Apenisa Driti will make his Group Nine debut this weekend as Wagga Brothers make their return to the first grade competition.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After an impressive season with Group 20 runners up Darlington Point in 2023, a stint in the Riverina representative team under coach Aaron Gorrell was enough to lure the second rower to the club.
Enjoying his short time with Gorrell, Driti reached out to see if the coach could connect him with a new club.
"After I had Goz coach me in the Riverina team, I gave him a message and he messaged back and asked if I'd like to come over," Driti said.
"I said yeah, I'd like to come help out the club and see what we can do this year."
With the club's return to first grade just days away, Driti said there is a good feeling among the playing group.
Pleased with how the side has begun to gel in training, he is looking forward to what he anticipates will be a big weekend for the club.
While enthusiastic about playing top grade football, Driti said the club's return is about more than just fielding as many teams as possible.
Rather, it's about showing the club's juniors that there will always be football in the future for them.
"I've played footy since I was young, and I just love it, I couldn't picture doing anything else," he said.
"There's a lot of history to this club and to see them missing from first grade last year, it's pretty disappointing
"Having them back this year brings back some camaraderie within the Wagga football community, and for the juniors, there's a lot of them here, seeing first grade again, hopefully they know they can play first grade one day too.
"If there's a first grade there, that's something they can aspire to be.
"That's what I did when I was a junior, I always looked up to the first graders, I wanted to be one of them, so hopefully now they can do the same."
Recruiting hard to get the team back off the ground, the Brothers have been open about their immigration issues this off-season.
Still waiting for some players to arrive in town, Driti believes the side will improve significantly throughout the season.
"We're a building club, I think throughout the year we'll get better, as long as we keep putting in the work at training, but the signs are there for a good season," he said.
"There's still many more recruits to come, but it's already looking bright."
Brothers play Kangaroos in their first game of the season after a round one bye.
Eager to begin his Group Nine career with a bang, Driti knows they have a tough game ahead of them.
"I've heard that Kangaroos are probably the team to beat this year, so it'll be good to see what Group Nine is about, and rip in," he said.
"The bye didn't impact us too much, we used it as a positive, it was another week to get better, another week to train and try and work on things that we needed to work on."