FOOTBALL

MID GIPPSLAND

By TOM HAYES

 

THE Mirboo North Football-Netball Club has turned over a new leaf, with the announcement of a new president and senior football coach.

MNFNC have announced the appointments of Damien Turner as senior coach and Andy McCarthy as president.

The news comes after MNFNC announced the shock resignations of senior coach Peter Mongta and president Joe Piper in a matter of days earlier this week.

Piper will remain a part of the club in a specialist facilities and infrastructure role, taking a step back to better manage his own health.

While it was revealed that Mongta was released from his contractual obligations after wishing to pursue other opportunities.

It has been a refreshing period for the club, who are putting the pieces back together after a storm ripped through the town on Tuesday, February 13.

Having done some assistant coaching, junior coaching as well as playing over 300 games, and captaining the senior side for nearly a decade, Turner said he can’t wait to get stuck in.

“Numbers are strong, it’s a young team – not dissimilar to last year,” Turner said.

“But we’ve got a Grand Final team from last year, unfortunately the Under 18s lost, the year before was an Under 18s premiership team, so we’ve got some super exciting talent coming through.

“The exciting thing is its local talent, these kids have come through the ranks at the club, so we’re really focussed on sticking this local talent together.”

Speaking to the Express last May after ticking past 300 games, Turner admitted that senior coaching was always on the cards if the opportunity presented itself. Now he can fulfil that goal.

He believes that the mature players at the club will compliment the youngsters coming through the ranks.

On the same page is the new president, McCarthy, explaining he wasn’t expecting anything like this.

Piper and vice president Andy Taylor both landed on McCarthy when deciding who to approach to be the next president, which got the ball rolling on the transition.

“They rang me, we had a chat, I didn’t expect the call – I was happy to hear them out. But then I heard the vision for the future, I thought about my 13, 11 and nine-year-old coming through the club,” McCarthy said.

“I thought ‘You know what? This is the time for me to put my hand up and be that positive change of direction’.

“I couldn’t be more grateful for the seamless handover and the unanimous support that I’ve received and messages that I’ve been flooded with since I took on the role.”

Although some may believe the timing to be unfavourable for the Tigers, McCarthy ensured that the future looks bright as the club enables its ‘never say die’ attitude.

“It goes without saying that it’s been a big 72 hours for the Mirboo North Football-Netball Club … I think I club like Mirboo North with such a strong history and culture of performance on and off the field, this is what we do when things happen that we’re not expecting,” McCarthy said on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 28.

“We’re able to dust ourselves off and keep moving forward with positive energy.”

MNFNC are on track to host Foster in their opening home game of the Mid Gippsland Football-Netball League, in Round 2 on April 20.

The state of the Mirboo North Recreation Reserve has improved leaps and bounds since the storm’s devastation. The ground appears to be back to its usual condition, albeit the four goal posts still snapped at their ankles.

More to come.