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 senior competition.

With the physical side of preseason complete, this week (Part 3) dives into some of the behind-the-scenes work that went into planning the campaign.

 

No stone left unturned

NEWBOROUGH wasn’t taking any chances.

Having lost three grand finals in a row by less than a goal from 2012 to 2014, the Bulldogs looked at every possible way to improve.

Coach Dean Caldow identified reigning premier Yinnar, grand finalist Yallourn Yallourn North, Mirboo North and Morwell East as the teams to watch carefully.

With the help of an ex-teammate, one by the name of Troy Makepeace, then with Gippsland Power, Caldow was able to get matches featuring these teams filmed during the season.

Having games filmed now is commonplace, but 10 years ago, it was still very much in its infancy at local level.

“I took it home and watched it all on Sunday and edited it, broke it down into inside 50s, centre clearances, and then we made the players watch some footage after training on Tuesday night,” Caldow recalled.

“Which was a big thing for some of these blokes, because you talk about making sacrifices, making blokes stay back an extra hour on a Tuesday night and training Monday nights leading into finals is a big ask for some – not for me – I just think it’s a given if you want to give yourself every opportunity.”

Also helping Newborough was a strong undercurrent.

The Bulldogs reserves were perennial finalists and had won premierships in 2012 and 2014, while there was a sprinkling of junior flags around this era as well.

By 2016, a host of these players had graduated into senior ranks.

The mental demons from those grand final defeats however still lingered.

“There’s always those scars in the background,” senior player at the time Rob Wilson admitted.

With a new season though came new expectations, and it soon became clear that no one was guaranteed a game.

“When we brought the boys (new players) in, they were here to prove a point, immerse themselves in the club on and off the field, and that sort of gives everyone a lift and everyone’s like ‘right, it’s time to train, time to work a bit harder, do that extra lap’,” Wilson said.

“Five blokes come in, there’s five spots that are up for grabs.

“It was a good driver for us.”

 

Next week – Off and Running