The club knew it was going to be a tough assignment for any coach to take over in 2021 following the departure of many of its previous players from the 2018 premiership and 2019 runner-up senior football teams, however, football operations manager Pete Burgess said the Redlegs were anticipating the football department to rally behind Daniel Kirchen again in 2022.
“It was certainly a tough 2021 for ‘Kirch’, not only with the with the turnover of players, but the interrupted season made it hard for any sort of consistency moving forward,” Burgess said.
“Hopefully 2022 is a fresh start with many returning faces committed, but also a few new faces and he can have a real crack.”
Wins against Ardmona and Longwood were the two occasions where Tally’s song was sung for the senior side in 2021.
But in a rebuilding phase, a club has to fight for any morsel of continuity — and for the Redlegs, that meant having two teams on the park each weekend without fail.
“These are real character-building seasons for everyone at the club,” Burgess said.
“At the end of the day we were able to field sides week in, week out.”
Adding to that mix by reviving Tallygaroopna’s thirds and fourths, alongside yielding more senior success in 2022, are two aspects Burgess is eyeing up already.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy in 2021, but in rebuilding the football club you have to take some hits,” he said.
“We have already appointed for season 2022 Michael Amadei as reserves coach and re-signed a number of key players in captain Zac Brett, Adam Brophy and Sean Gledhill.
“We also have premiership player Nic Fichera returning as a playing assistant coach.”
Club secretary Bree Boyle reiterated Burgess’ comments.
“We knew it was always going to be tough ask, but we are supporting our football department to continue in this rebuild,” Boyle said.
“We had some fantastic on-court success in the netball in 2021, with our senior netball teams all finishing as minor premiers and our junior netballers finishing in second place.
“It is has been quite tough during COVID for any club to get players and members motivated with the continuous stop-starts, and we know success brings some of that motivation.
“From an entire club perspective, we are really looking forward to what season 2022 might bring and including the ability to play finals in both football and netball.
“It's quite exciting for the club to be able to move forward in September ready for the next season. We have football coaching appointments in place, netball coaching appointments in the coming days. Advertising for vacant positions to follow.”
Burgess said any inquiries could be directed to him on 0409 515 048 or secretary Bree Boyle on 0437 098 201 or keep an eye on their social media.
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