Tigers strike again as ruckman Zak Barrett signs on for 2025

Boulder’s proactive recruiting for the 2025 Goldfields Football League season has continued with the acquisition of yet another key position player.

Less than a week after the Tigers announced the arrival of forward Dustin Walters from Victoria, ruckman Zak Barrett has formally signed on for next year from Frankston.

The 202cm ruckman this year made 19 appearances for Frankston in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula Football League and featured in the side’s best players eight times.

He spent five seasons with Frankston, including the 2022 premiership.

In announcing the move on social media, club officials looked forward to what Barrett could bring next year.

“Zak is a strong and very mobile ruckman who can rest forward and hit the scoreboard,” the statement said.

“He comes from a good football pedigree, having spent time with the Dandenong Stingrays.”

The club’s busy start to the off-season extends to president Chris Bowie’s willingness to cast a net interstate for players seeking employment opportunities in the Goldfields.

It has landed an extensive line of highly touted players at Boulder — the vast majority of which were missing in 2024 when the Tigers’ flag defence brought a third-place finish.

They were tied with Kalgoorlie on seven wins, but were bundled out of the flag race in the first semifinal against the Roos, who went on to play in the grand final.

Boulder’s 2023 premiership under Aaron Sweet broke a heartbreaking run of four consecutive grand final defeats.

But it was a season of upheaval in 2024 for the black-and-golds, with Sweet stepping aside and Simon Edwards thrust into the role with the bare remnants of a winning grand final side.

It was Edwards’ third stint as Boulder coach.

He initially held the role for the 2010-11 seasons, underpinned by a 2011 grand final appearance, and again in 2013 before spending several years as Sweet’s assistant coach.