Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes has signed Jeremy Kirkwood for the upcoming Riverina League season.
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Kirkwood arrives at the Goannas with an impressive football resume which includes a number of years playing in the NEAFL in Canberra.
The forward is the second key signing for the Goannas and MCUE coach Nelson Foley was rapt to have Kirkwood's signature.
"Yeah we are extremely excited to have Jeremy onboard," Foley said.
"Obviously he's a real high level footballer with a seriously impressive football resume.
"To have someone of his stature coming to the RFL to play with us we couldn't be more excited.
"He's seen the vision that we've got at Mangoplah, it's really resonated with him and he wants to come and be a part of it."
Foley prior to his arrival at the Goannas played in Canberra and he admitted those ties helped him land Kirkwood at MCUE.
"I suppose as a coach you are always on the lookout for high level recruits," he said.
"Through the grapevine of me being an ex-Canberra footballer it's a fairly small world up there as well.
"I had his name mentioned to me by quite a few people who held him in really high regard and from there it was a matter of reaching out to him.
"I think he'd agree we hit it off right from the word go which was great."
Goals were hard to come by at times for the Goannas this past season and Foley was excited to sure up their forward line with the addition of Kirkwood.
"He's a really versatile player," he said.
"He has played a lot of NEAFL footy as a key back and he's also played a lot of footy as a key forward.
"I'm really excited to see what he can do for us up forward, he's a super athlete and he obviously reads the game really, really well."
Fellow key forward Dean Lord has also signed on with the Goannas for the upcoming season and Foley said he was looking forward to seeing the pair work together this year inside forward 50 for MCUE.
"I'm very, very excited about that," he said.
"They have actually played a little bit of footy together back at Queanbeyan.
"The fact that they know each other and have played together just gives them a little head start for when they get down here and start running around together.
"I think we saw glimpses of how damaging Dean can be last year and I'm really, really excited to see him rip the lid off this year.
"I couldn't be more confident in what he's going to deliver for us and to have both of those guys up there who are super athletes, I'm really excited to see what they can do together.
"The way our midfield is looking and hopefully the way we'll be bringing the ball into them, we should make their life pretty good up there."
Kirkwood has previously held leadership roles at both Queanbeyan and Eastlake and Foley was looking forward to utilising the experienced forward as a mentor for the young core at the Goannas.
"One of the great things speaking to Jez over the last couple of months is he's really excited to come down and be a big part of that and be a real leader on the field," he said.
"His football IQ will be at such a high level having played on AFL-listed players regularly in the NEAFL.
"To have him in a key position up forward to be able to give advice and a little bit of direction to some of the young talent that we've got down there, I think that's going to be invaluable for us as a team and for the development of those young guys.
"I think we'll see a lot of those players come on in leaps and bounds with him being around down there."
