THE Hadfield Football Club appears to be at a crossroad.
Only 12 months removed from its first senior premiership in a generation, the Hawks slumped to a 2-14 season in Essendon Ford Division 1 this year, narrowly avoiding relegation.
The club recently announced Steve James, a former EDFL player, as its new senior coach and amidst what appears to be a mass exodus of key senior players, James certainly has his hands full.
And don’t forget the club only fielded one junior team and had no Under 18s in 2016.
But despite all he’s up against just to get a senior side on the park in 2017, James has full confidence that he can help get the club back on track.
What made you decide to have a go at this?
To be honest I probably went for about half a dozen jobs. I had just finished playing last season so I decided to have a go. I’ve been doing some assistant coaching over the past four or five years as a player. Last year I worked at Rockbank and did a bit of assistant stuff but it was mainly as a player. I decided not to play anymore and applied for jobs and managed to end up here.
Did it help having some connections to the EDFL?
Yeah I know a few blokes around here and hopefully I’ll be able to grab hold of a few blokes and have a chat to them.
So you’ve definitely hung up the boots? Because they like playing coaches down here...
Oh look, it’ll depend on the numbers we can get down here. If I have to play then I’ll play, no dramas.
Will it be important for someone like John Colaidis (2015 premiership playing co-coach) to stick around?
Yeah Johnny’s probably one of the first ones to reach out to me, really. He gave me a few numbers and a bit of background and that was very good. Whether he’s going to play or not, I’m not sure. He’s sort of up in the air about that but as far as I know, he’s going to hang around the club from what I can tell.
It’s well documented some of the struggles the club is facing right now. A lot of players are walking… so right now as we sit here in October, where is the Hadfield Footy Club at?
To be perfectly honest we’re simply after players, there’s no doubt about that. We do have some things in the process at the moment. We’ve got a few blokes lined up that will hopefully come down and sign with the club soon. A couple of kids from the premiership year that for whatever reason didn’t play in 2016 are coming down for a chat as well, so there are quite a few things that are on the go. Stay tuned, because we’re going to be into it.
Having the success of 2015 and then the complete opposite in 2016… is the club hungry for more of what it experienced a year ago or is that still a fair way off? What is the priority for 2017?
It’s going to have to start from the ground up. Players have left for whatever reason… but all I know is I’m a winner. I come from a winning background and have done a fair bit of time in high levels and high leagues, so I know how to win and I know how to get the best out of players if I put my mind to it. Yes we’ve had guys leave but my full intention is to replace them. We’ll look to have some of the senior guys speak to the junior kids and just get the place back on the map. We’ve boosted things like our social media and look, it’s going to take a bit of time but I think the club’s well aware of that and so am I. I’m here to work, I’m a young coach and maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe I can relate to some of the guys and even if I have to play then I have to play. But having said that, I’d prefer not to. My full intention is to get some of the guys back around here and make it a fun place and get the boys to enjoy themselves and each other and actually want to be around the footy club.
Is it fair to say it’s going to be a completely different senior team next year?
I would have thought so, yeah.
Is there potential for perhaps only one or two from 2016 to come back? Will the turnover of senior players be that dramatic?
I wouldn’t say one or two. I would say a good half a dozen or so, to the best of my knowledge for the time being.
How important is it for you to re-establish an Under 19s side immediately?
Extremely important.
Is it priority number one?
Priority number one is to get the senior team up and running at the minute given all the exits we’ve had. But Under 19s is also very important because you don’t want players doubling up in reserves and seniors like Hadfield had this year. To be able to perform at your best is hard enough in senior footy, let alone playing in another game beforehand. Under 19s and even 17s are really important because as they move into seniors they become part of the furniture, in a way.
How far off is the club from getting both 17s and 19s next year?
It’s still a fair way off at the moment. We do have an Under 19s coach, so that’s a good start. I’m actually working towards a couple of Under 17s kids that I had last season and a couple this season as well might come here and try and fill that void, but there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge in regards to that. I can’t be definitive about it, but it’s definitely part of my plans.
