FOOTBALL

MID GIPPSLAND

By LIAM DURKIN

 

THIS year marks a decade since Newborough Football-Netball Club’s last senior premiership.

In this mini-series, the Express looks back on how the Bulldogs took the 2016 Mid Gippsland Football-Netball League competition.

This week (Part 2) takes place in preseason, a few months after Newborough bowed out in the 2015 semi-final.

From this performance, it was evident to second-year coach Dean Caldow what he was after.

“When you lose 12 out of the 21 in the grand final (from 2014), then you start to look at your juniors,” he said.

“I had our five best under 18s come up, and our two best under 16s (in 2015).

“I went and watched the North Gippsland grand final, the Latrobe Valley (Gippsland League) grand final, and I was asking about certain players. We needed to recruit to go to the next step.

“I needed some inside mids … tough, hard players.”

Caldow then turned to a trusted source – his old Newborough teammate Tom Hallinan.

“I said is there any players down Ellinbank way that you can put me onto?” Caldow reccalled.

“Tom put me onto five blokes.”

Hallinan had played under Caldow in Bulldogs premierships in the early 2000s, before embarking on a coaching journey across Melbourne and greater Gippsland.

By 2016 he was back home, and with a thick phonebook full of contacts.

“As soon as Dean said hard on ballers, I knew exactly where to go to,” Hallinan said.

“Matt Slattery was number one, Phil Hicks number two. Both were in and out in Nar Nar Goon senior one and twos, that was through a very strong period for Nar Nar Goon footy club. They were top of Ellinbank (league), only lost one game in two-11 (2011).”

Slattery ended up being the find of the season, and won three best-and-fairests in his three years at the Bulldogs.

With the pieces in place, players were then put through the ringer over summer.

Little was anyone to know just how gruelling preseason would be.

 

Secret ingredient

THROW away your sports science degree.

There was none of this player management or training loads nonsense with this bloke.

A man by the name of Dennis Armstrong (not Armfield) walked in, or perhaps even marched into Newborough, and immediately set about overhauling preseason.

Straight away, players knew he meant business.

Armstrong was a mate of Hallinan’s, and had taken the road less travelled.

“Dennis, at the age of 61, became a personal trainer,” Hallinan said.

“He was my assistant coach at Nar Nar Goon. We brought Dennis down, Dennis would have been 59, travelling down from Warneet (near Tooradin).

“He spent four weeks absolutely flogging the hell through us, the whole squad of Newborough.

“You’ve got 55 training, athletics track, and it’s 10 x 400 metre runs, this is in the tapering off for the home-and-away in readiness for the season.

“So when we had a dull game against Yallourn North (Round 4), it was to be expected, because we had heavy legs and we’d just finished a really solid last four weeks, incredibly solid fitness block.”

There was method in the madness however.

“The gains were seen then during the finals,” Hallinan said.

In many ways, Newborough was more prepared for the season than even it knew.

That’s because training was harder than anything on game day.

 

Next week: Part 3

An inauspicious opening