MORE than two dozen senior players have walked away or retired from Avondale Heights in two seasons.
While that may paint a pretty bleak picture, coach Donald McDonald is upbeat about the coaching task that’s in front of him.
“If you were just looking at it at face value, you would be worried about Avondale Heights,” McDonald told essendondfl.com.au.
“But I think as a club, we had to make a decision on what we really stand for.”
Now entering his third full season at the helm at Canning Street, McDonald has become less concerned about wins and losses and is now looking to focus mainly on the culture and environment of the club itself.
He’s the first to admit Avondale Heights cannot financially compete with Strathmore Community Bank Premier Division’s power clubs and as a result, recruiting high-quality, established senior players is a major challenge.
When you also factor in how much experience is not returning in 2019 (look at the list of outs below), it’s easy to see why McDonald’s coaching priorities have shifted from winning games to developing youth.
When asked if this year’s focus was more about making finals or avoiding relegation, McDonald’s instant response was “none of them”.
“For us, all our focus is going to be on creating an environment where players want to stay,” he said.
“We’ve lost over 28 players who played at least one senior game in the last two years but full credit to the club, they haven’t put up the white flag.
“We’ve had a brand-new committee come in so I think the club’s got a really strong heartbeat, but we just want to create an environment where people want to stay at our football club.”
Defender Ben Cosgriff is the only new recruit that was born in the 1980s and a large majority of the confirmed inclusions are 22-years-old or younger.
“I think that we’ve been super responsible about the way we want to build our club going forward,” McDonald said.
“People might look at us and think we’re going to get relegated and have lost all these players, so I fully understand that, but there was no way known I was going to leave the club in those circumstances.
“So, if we sink or swim, I’m committed to going through with it and lets just see what happens.
“I do want our side to be competitive, but we want to create a club where players can come and know they’re going to get better.
“We want to build a side that wants to be successful, that wants to win games and ultimately win finals in the EDFL. But how long that takes, who knows.”
Avondale Heights avoided relegation with just four wins and a draw in 2018.
Their 2019 campaign will commence with games against Maribyrnong Park, Glenroy, Aberfeldie and Keilor.
RECRUITING
In: Ben Cosgriff (defender, Heidelberg), Ruairi Cleary (forward, West Coburg), Dinny Cleary (forward, West Coburg), Tim Garisto (forward, Therry Penola), Liam Byrne (midfielder, Bundoora), Anastasis Dounias (forward, West Coburg) & Caleb McPherson (midfielder, Albion)
*Hisham Kerbatieh and Mitch Hibberd were cleared to Avondale Heights but are not listed as new recruits due to VFL commitments and are not expected to play any EDFL games in 2019
Out: Dennis Armfield (Park Orchards), Luke Edwards (moved to Queensland), Scott Clouston (retired), Cam Wood (retired/injured), Charlie Nastasi (Spotswood), Matthew Evans (Bundoora), Domenic Iermano (St Bernards), Nathan Byrne (Turvey Park), Koe Ngawati (Maribyrnong Park) & Jordan McIvor-Clark (Greensborough)
2019 DRAW
