By Matt Fotia
Park Orchards coach Dennis Armfield says a focus on balancing their game play, some new recruits and added perspective will help the Sharks in their 2020 Division One campaign, whilst first year Women’s coach Simon McAuliffe is loving life in his new role.
Park Orchards preliminary final finish in 2019 could be described as a little bit flattering. Following their fifth loss in seven games the Sharks found themselves in sixth position on the ladder, trailing Upper Ferntree Gully, with one round to go.
Needing bottom placed Knox to do them a favour, Park Orchards entered their clash with Bayswater focused on finishing the year on a high.
“I remember coming off the ground against Bayswater having won and I was just happy that we’d won and had finished the year off on a positive and then five minutes later we found out that Knox had beaten Upper Ferntree Gully and we’d snuck into finals by a couple of percent,” said Armfield.
The Sharks then blasted their way to the preliminary final, knocking off Bayswater and Lilydale in impressive fashion, reinvigorated by their second chance at success.
“We were fortunate enough that we had a healthy list at that time and were playing some good football – we finally got our connections right and were starting to nail our game plan,”
“We came out with an all guns blazing swing as hard as we can approach and we managed to get through to play Croydon who were just a step above us.”
Armfield addresses the troops. Photo – Field of View Sports Photography
All guns blazing is another good way of describing the Sharks season.
Despite squeezing into the finals they were the number two ranked attack in the division booting 1,367 points for the year.
However their defence was as leaky as their attack was potent, ranked last in the division, conceding 1,391 points – 19 more than bottom placed Knox.
Rather than shift the blame onto his defensive unit, Armfield says the way his side move the ball forwards contributes to their lack of solidity.
“Our attacking hurts our defence if I’m honest,”
“We kick to high risk spots and yes it’s high reward but on the rebound we can get hurt, so it’s not our desire to work defensively it’s more the decisions we make on the offensive side can sometimes be too risky and we just can’t get into positions to defend that,”
“We’ve worked on some things this off season to help bridge that gap between the number two ranked offence and the number ten ranked defence, and that’s not all a defensive thing, it’s about finding the balance between offence and defence in our execution.”
A handful of recruits will hopefully do the trick for the folks at Domeney Reserve.
Ryan and Daniel Wilson join from Knox, whilst Taylor Murrell has signed from Portland in the Hampden League and Scott Houghton has come across from West Gippsland outfit Koo Wee Rup.
“We targeted some areas that we thought that we weren’t necessarily weak in, but if we could players in that space we would definitely get stronger,”
“A couple of talls, a couple of midfielders and a reshuffled pack to make sure players played in their strongest position.”
Recruiting isn’t really Park Orchards strong suit though, with the clubs incredibly strong junior program continuing to bolster the playing stocks of its senior club and the importance of that is not lost on Armfield.
“We’re very lucky to have a great junior club that feeds our senior club and the under 19 program that we have in place has won something like seven of the last possible nine flags, so to have those players come through our senior football club is a great stepping stone and tool to have as a coach,” Armfield said.
But perspective on why we play football is big for the ex Carlton utility, especially in the current climate.
“We need to make sure that we don’t lose sight of what footy is really about – having some fun and enjoying it with your mates.”
Park Orchards enjoyed a successful 2019 in the Eastern Region Womens North Division. Photo – Field of View Sports Photography
Park Orchards women enjoyed their 2019 season in the Eastern Region Womens North Division, finishing clear in second place on the ladder and earning a grand final berth, where they were defeated by deserved winners North Ringwood.
New coach Simon McAuliffe is looking to keep the development going amongst a group of players with varying levels of the football experience.
“There are girls who are more advanced then others skills wise and knowledge wise and then you’ve got a few girls who are completely new to the game, so it’s been about teaching technique, especially around how to attack the football,”
“We’re big on game sense as well, you’ve got to keep relating every drill we do to a game sense situation – we’ve moved it from A to B to C – and make sure they can see the correlation and that it’s not just running to a different colour hat.”
McAuliffe is a big fan of the female game, citing the girls eagerness to learn as a major motivator for his coaching.
“I love it, it’s just a different type of game, I love their enthusiasm and they’ve got a pretty incredible ability to just listen,”
“You can explain something to them and they just go and do it, whereas boys sometimes they’ve been doing it for so long it can be in one ear and out the other, the girls just soak up information.”
Like Armfield, McAuliffe is aware how lucky Park Orchards are as a club and believes its club motto will make sure the Sharks community comes out the other side of the Covid-19 crisis in one piece.
“We’re incredibly fortunate to have the president and committee that we’ve got, I could listen to our president for hours with how positive he is,”
“The club’s theme is that we don’t leave anyone behind and we’re really driving that with the girls, so stay in contact with each other and make sure everyone is going okay.”