Image: Bendigo City
Brunswick City have made their third signing of the pre-season, with George McHeileh returning to the club after a stint with Bendigo City.
The 23-year-old spent two years with the regional outfit, captaining City this year where he won the club’s Best and Fairest award, scoring three goals in 23 league appearances.
The central midfielder has previously spent time with the likes of Northcote City and Pascoe Vale respectively,before joining the Spartans at the inception of the NPL era in 2014.
He made a total of nine appearances under Joe De Martino before and returns to Dunstan Reserve after consolidating two years of regular first-team football.
Despite a tough start to the 2016 campaign, a mid-season resurgence in performances under Spanish coach Jose Santamarta was led by McHeileh- even though the club still finished last in NPL2 West.
He earned TCF’s June Player of the Month honours, while also taking out the club’s best and fairest and polled the highest of any player at Bendigo at Gold Medal night.
McHeileh joins former Green Gully goalkeeper Sebastian Mattei and ex-Eastern Lions attacking midfielder Cameron Neales as new arrivals under George Karkaletsis, who is embarking on his second season as head coach.
In addition to the new signings, City have also re-signed key squad members Matthew Augello, Mike Cunningham, Nathan Fox, Hayden Kanjo, Andrew Le Page, Jason Principato, Ali Turgut, Dimitri Vithoulkas and 2016 top goalscorer Adam Wright.
Meanwhile Bendigo have lost a second key squad member, following equal top scorer David Younan’s departure earlier to Sunshine George Cross for 2017.