ROOKIE Kangaroo Flat coach Jason Stevens expects recruit James Saville to have a big impact on the BFNL in 2014.
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The Roos announced on Monday that they'd signed the 24-year-old former East Fremantle key defender.
"The thing I like the most amount James is he's versatile,'' Stevens said.
"He's not your stereotypical key defender. While he'll certainly have an impact for us as a key defender, I'd certainly like to use him through the middle of the ground as well.
"At the start of the pre-season we identified gaps in our list that we needed to focus on and James certainly fills one of those gaps.
"The other great thing about James is that he's only 24. His best footy is in front of him."
Saville spent one season with East Fremantle in the WAFL, playing 15 games in the reserves.
He won a TAC Cup premiership with the Calder Cannons in 2007 and had VFL stints with Collingwood and Coburg.
"James is a leader in his own right having captained premiership teams in the VFL development league and i believe he can help to further develop our young players,'' Stevens said.
"James will be relocating to Bendigo which is an added bonus for our club."
Stevens said Saville had knocked back offers from WAFL and VFL clubs.
"He's keen to play some country footy, so we're very happy to get him,'' he said.
"We've tried to get him the past couple of years."
Saville's signature is the third key signing for the Roos this off-season behind midfielder Corey Greer and key forward Cam Rinaldi.
"We're pretty happy with what we've done recruiting wise, but we're still talking to two or three more prospective recruits,'' Stevens said.
"We're mindful that we want to give our locals as much opportunity as we can to develop as well.
"We've got a good, young group there and we're just trying to add some experience around them.
"We haven't filled every gap in our list that we wanted, so we'll always remain active as far as recruiting is concerned."