And it’s a willingness to get his hands dirty that helped the Bulldogs land on Andrew Ciavarella to lead the club forward in the Goulburn Valley League next season.
Tatura announced Ciavarella’s appointment on Thursday night, with the current interim co-coach inking a one-year deal to replace the already-exited Paul Barnard.
With Ciavarella ready to step up to the plate after a few years as assistant coach, Tatura Football Netball Club president Quinton Langlands celebrated the elevation of the Bulldogs’ 100-gamer.
“He’s very well-loved around our club and is a proper first in to do the dishes sort of clubman,” he said.
“We think it’s going to be a great appointment from within and we’re excited for where he can take us.”
Ciavarella joined the Kennel in 2017 from Kyabram and has been a staple in the Bulldogs’ midfield since.
He has also taken on assistant coaching duties in recent years and ticked over the 100-game marker for Tatura in 2025, a season that has not been kind to the Bulldogs in the win-loss column.
Tatura sits bottom of the ladder with a 0-15 ledger and hasn’t won a game since the opening round last year, yet Langlands insists morale remains high within the playing group.
Ciaveralla, to his credit, has played a large part in that.
“He’s been a key to holding it together,” Langlands said.
“We had other candidates that we’d explored and, for us, he was the standout.”
Langlands indicated it’s not yet clear about Ciavarella’s playing future, but hinted Tatura’s number 15 would have interest in lacing up the boots next season.
The club offered Ciavarella a potential co-coaching setup, but noted he was “very keen to take the job on in his own right”.
Ciavarella will undertake the task of starting afresh with Tatura off the back of two troubled seasons, meaning the aim of the game in 2026 can be bundled into one word: improvement.
“It’ll be about incremental improvement and teaching our young players how to play the game and be competitive in a GVL scenario,” Langlands said.
“Obviously there’s recruitment to be done and this is part of the idea of getting our announcement out now, so we can get on and do that recruitment work.
“We’ve signed him on for a year, but I would foresee that he will be involved in the club for years to come at some level.”
Tatura hasn’t only strengthened its senior mentorship stocks.
The Bulldogs have anointed Will Sexton as junior development manager, with the current Port Melbourne VFL midfield coach penning a one-year deal at Tatura Park.
Sexton, a former Geelong Falcon, has been recruited to forge a new blueprint for the Bulldogs’ youth football program, and is someone Langlands can’t wait to engage with moving forward.
“We’re really trying to put our attention into building from the ground up and Will Sexton will be a tremendous asset to our club,” he said.
“We’ve signed him on for a one-year deal, but we’re looking to build things for the future and making sure we’ve got kids coming through the club who know how to play the game.
“And also to make it a bit more than a destination than it has been for young people when they’re looking for a club to be involved in.”
