THREE Division 2 flags in five years is a great achievement for the Cougars, but the former A Grade powerhouse wants to be back among the heavyweights once more.
After two-time premiership coach David Battistella stepped down following last month’s thrilling Grand Final win over Roxburgh Park, the Cougars announced former juniors Ash Arrowsmith and Nick Grigg would be coming home to Overland Reserve as playing co-senior coaches in 2017.
Arrowsmith is a premiership player with Strathmore while Grigg is returning from Mount Pleasant in the Heathcote District Football League.
The challenge now for the Cougars is to stay in Division 1, after failing to survive relegation from the second tier in 2014.
We sat down with East Keilor’s new coaching duo to find out what their plans are for the ambitious club.
How do you feel coming home and how much of that factored into taking the role?
Arrowsmith: It’s almost like nothing’s changed. We said at the start of last year that if we did ever want to come back or play together, that we’d do it here and see out our footy careers here and give a little back to the club that gave us so much when we were kids. So it did play a major role.
Grigg: It’s very exciting to be back with the family. It’s exciting to be playing with my best mate and we’ll be coaching together, so hopefully we can get this club back to where it belongs.
Ash, you would have been pretty close to Dale May (2016 Strathmore interim coach). Would you have learned anything from someone like him at Strathmore?
Arrowsmith: Yeah he was sort of dumped in at the deep end and from the way he went about it, I learned a lot of things from him… just the way he handled being mates with the players he was coaching and his philosophies as well. He brought in some philosophies when he started coaching and they seemed to work really well, so I’ll be taking a lot from him and all my previous coaches.
We all know what happened two years ago last time the club was in Division 1. Does any of what happened there matter now?
Grigg: I think that’s why the club’s come and chased us. It’s something different to try and get the club up and about. We’re both playing and we’re going to bring players, so it’s a massive change.
And David Battistella will stay involved in some capacity?
Arrowsmith: Yeah, we had a meeting when we first got appointed and he went through the current playing list and the plans he had for them going forward, which put us in good stead knowing where the current playing list is at. It actually gave us some insight into what we need to recruit. Because I was playing at Strathmore and not having the ability to see East Keilor play, we both went along and watched the Division 2 Grand Final, in which East Keilor excelled. It was there we realised that we have a lot to work with here. I think Batts will take a back seat and guide us wherever we need that help. Our new assistant coaches are also coming from very good clubs, and our plan was to get good people around us that have a good, astute knowledge of football.
Fully aware how early it is to be asking this, but how aggressive will the club’s recruiting be this summer?
Arrowsmith: We’ll be keeping those cards close to our chests. We have got a few blokes that have shown some interest, but we’re still in the process of working out what budget we have got and obviously there is going to be some movement. But at this point in time, there’s no one of note yet. Part of our plan is to recruit people that want to be here, that want to play football for the club and for us, and to give them the best opportunity at helping to build the club from the bottom up.
The theme that keeps coming up when you speak to some people around here is that East Keilor wants to be in Premier Division again. Have you guys embraced that as well?
Arrowsmith: We grew up with East Keilor as a powerhouse in A Grade, making prelims and winning flags – that’s what we grew up with. Since we’ve gone elsewhere we’ve seen the demise… the fall from grace. The club is now in the right mindset to go forth and see what we can do. The sky’s the limit.
Is it a short-term goal to end up in Premier Division and how important is success in 2017?
Arrowsmith: I think 2017 is going to be a good building block. We’re going to try and show the boys that they can compete at the level and that’s our aim, to make sure 2017 isn’t a waste of a year. We want to get games into blokes that we do see a future for at the club and that we do want to build the club from the bottom up with. Success will come with a game plan, success will come with a good mentality and success will come with future growth and I think the more time and effort we put into these younger boys, success will definitely come about.
How different will the side look?
Arrowsmith: Look there will be a turnover of players. We’ll be recruiting to fill certain holes in the list but at the same time we’re giving no one any sort of free pass. It’s a clean slate, so if the boys want to put in the effort they’ll get the opportunities.
Grigg: There will be a few new signings but all that’s to come. We’ll announce those soon and at the right time.
How will this coaching arrangement work on game day?
Arrowsmith: We’ll have line coaches. Nick will play forward, I’ll be down back and then we’ll have someone look after the midfield, so we’ll have leaders on every line. Off the field some of our assistants will have key roles and there’s going to be an element of trust in those guys off the field. We’ve got to go into games with the mindset that we’re making the best decisions for the club.
