Dutchy wrote:It is with great excitement that we can announce Byron Sumner has signed to play for Sturt in 2017 and 2018.
Byron played his junior football at Woodville South Football Club, he was a brilliant junior player, played for South Australia in the 2009 National Championships and made his league debut for Woodville West Torrens in the same year. He was then drafted to Sydney Swans at pick 54 in the 2009 National Draft. He played one game in 2011 for Sydney and was delisted at the end of that year and came back and played for Woodville West Torrens in 2012.
He was an outstanding league player in 2012 and our recruiting committee watched him with interest in the subsequent years. In 2016 he played at Jervois Football Club in the River Murray Football League (a fantastic competition in our recruiting zone) and at the end of the season Marty Mattner spoke with Byron. Marty played with Byron at Sydney and after their discussions he joined Sturt 2017 pre-season training in November. He has not missed a session, has settled in well with the players and his football has been outstanding in the game play training segments. He feels comfortable with the Sturt structure and environment, he gets on well with Dwayne Wilson and Coach Mattner and he has committed to play at Sturt in 2017 and 2018.
He will add a touch of class with his kicking coming out of defence and we are sure he will excite the supporters with the way he will take the game on.
David Oatey - General Manager Football
At his best he is a brilliant player. However, unless his attitude has changed, he goes missing in a tough hard matches because he hates body contact. Sturt won the GF against the eagles (I thought) because they played tough, uncompromising, contested footy. Sumner definitely does not bring this and so might upset Sturt's balance. But I hope for his sake he goes alright......just not against the eagles!
