Coburg are pleased to announce that 2015 Calder Cannon graduate, Hisham Kerbatieh has signed for the 2017 season from the Northern Blues.
Kerbatieh made his debut as Northern’s 23rd man in round one, and never looked back, managing 21 goals from 18 VFL senior appearances in 2016. His best performance arguably came on a Sunday afternoon in late July against Werribee, managing 5.2 from 21 possessions. He averaged 16.8 possessions a game throughout the year, and also managed 11 tackles in one game.
A livewire forward who built up a reputation in the TAC Cup, Kerbatieh is also capable of playing in the midfield. He managed 46 goals from 28 matches for the Cannons in his two seasons at Highgate Reserve, and also represented Vic Metro in 2015.
While he enjoyed his time at the Blues, Kerbatieh decided to make the move to Piranha Park for the benefit of his own football.
“Obviously team success and playing under a standalone coach was why I made the move, where I think they put much more emphasis on us,” said Kerbatieh.
“Knowing I’m going to be playing with the boys I grew up playing with is also going to be a great feeling, and as well I just want to keep building my first year where I can continue to play consistent four quarter footy.”
List & Recruiting Manager Sebastian Spagnuolo is extremely pleased to have secured the forward’s signature, after missing out on him 12 months ago.
“We’ve known a lot of about Hisham for some time as he’s a former Calder Cannon,” Spagnuolo said.
“Hisham had an excellent VFL season with the Northern Blues in 2016 but has come to Coburg in order to further develop his game and work more on his weaknesses, whilst still demonstrating his strengths as a mercurial small forward that can hurt opposition with his freakish goalkicking, and ability to make something out of nothing near goal.”
“We’re pleased to have him join our club for 2017.”
Stay tuned tomorrow as we announce our last signing of the five in five for this week.
