Sport
8 September, 2022
Joel Radlof stays on at Rovers as they look to improve club fortunes in 2023
Maryborough Rovers senior coach Joel Radlof has signed on for the 2023 season, in a show of faith for the club. While Rovers ultimately won the senior football wooden spoon in 2022, going winless, Radlof said there were plenty of positives about the...
Maryborough Rovers senior coach Joel Radlof has signed on for the 2023 season, in a show of faith for the club.
While Rovers ultimately won the senior football wooden spoon in 2022, going winless, Radlof said there were plenty of positives about the team as he looked to build a culture of sustained success.
“Signing up to the job initially was a last-minute decision last year. When I signed on, the club was in a bit of trouble. Getting teams and not forfeiting, as well as being competitive in some matches was a really good scenario for us this year. Signing on earlier this time gives me a platform to recruit more players, and also have a full pre-season this time around,” he said.
“For me, the biggest thing coming in to the club as a first-year coach was that there was no one signed. I had to convince guys to stay. What this year was about was building culture off the field, to the point where guys want to stay and bring friends to the club. We haven’t been renowned as a go-to club, we needed to build a culture where people want to be there. I’ve been flat out the last couple of weeks trying to recruit.”
That culture also takes in ensuring that the junior teams have a pathway to participate in senior football in the future, with the under 14s and under 17s participating in finals in 2022.
“I’ve taken a lot of pride in our junior results this year. We need to build a culture where we support our juniors, and get to a position where players can develop to play senior footy at Rovers. There hadn’t been much of a pathway or development for our juniors over the last five to eight years, but we have successful juniors coming through, and the ability to retain them is important,” he said.
“I train with the juniors once a week to help out the junior coaches, and to help out some of the boys in regards to what they want to work on. So they know who I am, what I do and come and say hello around the club, whereas that didn’t happen in previous years.”
Radlof believes if he can add leadership and experience to the team, it can transform Rovers into a team that can win games next year, while also saying the bulk of their senior playing list has re-signed for next year — including best and fairest winner Marshall Murray.
“Winning is a skill that you learn with experience — we have a lot of 17 to 21-year-olds that haven’t played a lot of senior football, and have not much genuine leadership with players over the age of 25 who have played high quality football, so they haven’t understood how to win yet. We think we should have won two or three games this year,” he said.
“We have 15 signings ready to announce for next year, on top of the likes of Marshall Murray and Mitch Whelan, while we’re having discussions on signing more players in the next week or two. The club is in a much better position, we just have to bring in some experience to provide that leadership and nous to help win games, which will be a big difference going forward. It could turn us into a four or five-win, if not more, team next year.
“We are trying to recruit based on culture next year. And that’s how you build sustained success. I don’t want to be a hero and buy a heap of good players, make finals and get a good reputation for myself, it’s how we build a team to go to the next level.”