Sport
18 July, 2022
Maryborough retains senior, reserves and under 18s coaches for 2023 season
Maryborough have taken the first step towards added stability for the 2023 Bendigo Football Netball League season, re-signing all three senior football coaches. Senior coach Rick Andrews, reserves coach Callum Rowe and under 18 coach Brady Neill are...
Maryborough have taken the first step towards added stability for the 2023 Bendigo Football Netball League season, re-signing all three senior football coaches.
Senior coach Rick Andrews, reserves coach Callum Rowe and under 18 coach Brady Neill are all set to continue on in their respective roles as they continue to build towards restoring the Magpies’ status as a competitive Bendigo league team.
Andrews said that he wanted to lead the way, making a pact with both Rowe and Neill to ensure the Magpies were able to go into the back end of the season with stability.
“Through all the instability this year, with player movements over the last couple of years, the three of us have just made a really big commitment — if we’re the one stable thing, we have to commit to that and turn things around just by leading the way and saying ‘hey, no matter how tough the times are, it doesn’t give you a reason not to be here’,” he said.
While it’s been a tough season for the Magpies, winless to this point of the season with a percentage of 26, Andrews has been able to see many positives, particularly in the development of senior players, as well as the success of the club’s under 18s program which sees the Magpies lie in fifth position.
“What I’ve learned the most this year is understanding that you’ve got to not allow yourself to be defined by a score, or defined by what the scoreboard says, you’re defined by the actions you do and how you handle yourself. That’s one of the big learnings,” he said.
“I won’t be defined by what someone thinks is happening at our club, I’ll be defined by our players’ actions, and hopefully that says we are big on culture as well.
“Eventually, we’ll be measured by our results — we’re just not in a position to be there, but you have to look for the little things, for example, the development of Aidan Hare, Liam Latch and Kya Lanfranchi — these are young leaders who’ve had terrific years regardless of our position on the ladder. There’s so much to like, we now have to do a little bit more.
“We started to look at achieving goals in 2022 — first of all, we had to get an 18s team up and running, as there hasn’t been an 18s team for six years.
“We’re really proud with what Brady has done with the under 18s — they’re the future of our club. We want to treat them with the utmost respect and give them the best chance to succeed. One of the big focuses this year and going into next year is seeing where we can take that group of guys — they’ve been fabulous this year.”
“We want to make a pathway for anyone under the age of 18 — if you come to our club, there is going to be a good pathway to go through, being able to play some good junior footy, into some good senior footy. I just hope more people take that opportunity — they’re not going to work under better coaches than Brady and Callum in terms of that development. Providing that pathway is very important to us.
“We’ll promote people who have stayed loyal to our 18s and junior footy program — we’ll make sure they’ll continue their development in open age footy.”
Andrews also had praise for Rowe in his role as reserves coach — while the club were unable to field a reserves side for the first time this season on the weekend against Gisborne, the fact that they had been able to field a team for each week up to round 13 in the backdrop of COVID was something Andrews was happy with.
“We wanted to play as many reserves games as we could, in previous years, we had forfeits and that sort of thing, so we got to the last weeks without doing that,” he said.
“To Callum’s credit, and to the club’s credit, we have made sure that each week up to last week, we fronted up to reserves games, unfortunately it just wasn’t possible against Gisborne.”
With their senior coaching outlook finalised, the Magpies can now look confidently towards their future, starting with this weekend’s clash with Eaglehawk.