HILL End Football Netball Club has secured experienced premiership winning coach Brad Sinclair to lead its senior football side in the 2015 Mid Gippsland season.
Sinclair, whose coaching career spans 25 years, brings a wealth of knowledge to the Willow Grove-based club.
He has been the high performance development coach for the Casey Scorpions, St Kilda’s affiliated VFL team, working with St Kilda under Grant Thomas and is a former talent scout for the Brisbane Lions.
He also coached Nilma Darnum’s senior team to its first premiership in 50 years and has been at the helm of a number of other clubs including Phillip Island, Rowville and Batemans Bay.
Hill End finished seventh on the ladder this year and has endured a 33-year drought since it last won the premiership in 1981.
Sinclair said the challenge of building and developing a young group and helping to make a struggling team successful attracted him to the club.
“For an older, experienced, non-playing coach like myself, I do the job because I want a challenge. I don’t take on a club that played finals the previous year,” Sinclair said.
“Working with a side I can build and develop keeps me on my toes and is what keeps me passionate.”
Sinclair said his aim for Hill End was for the seniors to play finals football in 2015.
“My job is to build a program that helps the team achieve that, and to get buy-in from the players to carry it out. I’m on a journey with them. I’m not a dictator and my door is always open, but I can’t do it for them. The players need to buy into the plan themselves,” he said.
Current and prospective Hill End players have the chance to meet Sinclair at a ‘meet the coach barbecue’ at the club rooms in Willow Grove on Sunday from 1pm. RSVP to Tim Mackenlay on 0437 079 246.
