PREMIERSHIP coach Dean Caldow was appointed as Newborough senior coach for season 2015 at the club’s annual meeting last Wednesday.
Caldow replaces Glenn Michie, who resigned after one year in the role citing travel time from Tooradin while juggling a young family as the main reason for his departure.
The club was hopeful Michie would finish out his career at the Bulldogs, but the potent player-coach will instead lead Devon Meadows in the Nepean Football League next season.
“It was probably more of a hope (he would stay), initially it was a one year thing,” Newborough president Steve Hall said.
“He’d had a couple of injuries over the last couple of years and he thought he wouldn’t mind finishing at home, Newborough.
“He had a good year injury wise and got through all right but… it was just the travel.”
After taking the fourths last season, Caldow will resume the senior position which he held with success in the past, leading the club to its most recent flags with back-to-back titles in 2002 and 2003.
A prominent figure in Gippsland footy, Caldow has had stints at Glenelg in the SANFL and Morwell and Moe in the Gippsland League.
He returned to the Bulldogs last year where he was injected into the junior structure, in a similar vein to Lachlan Sim at Moe, and has looked after under 14 and 16s.
“One of the things too is that Dean will look at some of the youngsters; we probably had about four or five come up from the thirds last year and got a bit of a taste,” Hall said.
“He knows a lot of the junior players coming through and he’ll get the best out of them; some of them will probably get a regular spot in our seniors.”
Hall said the club hoped Caldow’s qualities from his playing days would rub off on the senior team next season.
“Probably just the freshness, Dean’s a very respected player/coach throughout the Valley, there’s not too many people in football circles who don’t know him and he’s quite a good football brain,” Hall said.
“He’ll probably bring a little more toughness, get more out of the players because he was a good, strong, tough player himself.”
Newborough will look to Caldow to break the Bulldog curse, having lost the Mid Gippsland grand final for the past three years by single digit deficits.
“It’s a bit disappointing but from a club point of view we’re getting there, and two out of the last three years we’ve had all four teams playing in grand finals,” Hall said
Premiership winning reserves coach Bradd Taylor has been reappointed, while Danny Schembri will take the thirds.
The club is searching for a replacement for Caldow in the fourths, and was also preparing to announce a senior netball coach at the time of going to print.
Hall and Colin McTaggart received life membership at the meeting.
