Heathmont are ready for what’s coming in 2021, with both senior coaches more than confident in their sides abilities to compete.
Heathmont’s success in the third tier of the EFNL has gone under the radar in recent years, given the consistency of home and away darlings Ringwood and the unlikely premierships of Boronia, Park Orchards and Mitcham.
The Jets were surprise runners up in 2017, semi-finalists in 2018 and were knocked out (via extra time) in the first round of finals in 2019.
Furthermore, in each season they were dismissed from the finals by the eventual premier (Park Orchards, Boronia, Mitcham).
But in 2021 it will be their third coach in four seasons, with ex Wandin Premiership coach and Dandenong Stingrays Nab League Girls mentor Nick Rutley stepping into the role.
Rutley has bought a new sense of malleability to the pre-season regime at Jets, given the flexibility required by everyone in a post Covid world.
“Post Covid it’s taken people a lot of time to get back into the swing of things, not just in terms of football but in terms of living life,”
“So throughout pre-season we’ve been pretty lenient in regard to people working as much as they can, making their money and you can’t begrudge them that,”
“But it’s a fine balance, because we’re a couple weeks out from round one and we’re going to line up against a historically physical (The) Basin team and it’s going to be a challenge.”
That leniency Rutley speaks of is a symptom of the new age approach to coaching, and whilst it risks players taking advantage of excess goodwill, Rutley believes all coaches will have to make the change.
“The guys have been great in terms of keeping me in the loop and whenever they are at training there is nothing that indicates to me that they’re not putting in the extra work outside of training hours, because our sessions have been pretty hot and they’ve got through them,”
“So as long as the communication is consistent, I’m pretty happy,”
“That’s the shift that all coaches will have to make, you have to be pretty adaptable.”
One thing players can’t do in their own time is teach themselves the nuances of a new gameplan, which has been the big focus for Rutley and his coaching crew.
“Coming in as a new coach a big focus has been terminology and education on how we want to play,”
“Fitness is the easy part, all the guys are naturally fit and have turned up ready to train,”
“So now we are teaching them how we want them to play….and a lot of it has been around defence and how we want to defend.”
The Jets will boast a strong mixture of experience and youth on the field in 2021, with a pair of storied defenders re-aligning themselves with the club and a bunch of youngsters ready to step up to the plate.
“Jake Sherriff is coming back to the football club, Dylan Sverns has got some passion back for his footy, Matthew Langdon joins us from Montrose and Matt Cunningham (Bayswater) is another older head,”
“Those guys have been invaluable so far leading the group.”
“Then there’s these kids, who are exciting and edgy who have really impressed,”
“The (senior) squad of 26-28 is going to be really competitive.”
Being competitive in Division Two will be no mean feat this season, with all eight clubs harbouring valid ambitions of playing finals football.
“(I’m) Expecting Knox to be really strong, they won six games and got relegated,” said Rutley.
“Boronia are always thereabouts, Ringwood’s top end talent is as good as anyone’s, South Belgrave are an interesting proposition I think they’ll come up and compete,”
“The competition is going to be so even, you know you can’t disrespect a Templestowe, you can’t disrespect The Basin, Mulgrave, whoever, because if you’re not on your game they’ll get you.”
Into his second year with the Jets female program, John Haynes has been uber impressed with the attitude and application of his side, who trained whenever possible in 2020.
The women were also training alongside their male counterparts in the early weeks of this pre-season, with the club looking to strengthen the bonds between the entire club.
“We started training just before Christmas and we train with the men’s team in that period,”
“The idea is that we want to be a united club and that worked really well for us,” said Haynes, who has lifted the intensity of training since the resumption of their 2021 preparation.
“Since February we’ve been training twice a week and getting really good numbers to each session,”
“So, we’ve lifted the intensity of the drills in recent times and have gone from skill work to the game plan and gameday awareness.”
The Jets players will be hoping this focus on gameday skills will hold them in good stead come the real thing, but Haynes is confident his group will be up to the challenge.
In 2020 we actually dropped down a level and the previous (group of) girls would have been really competitive in that space, so with the influx of the top age under 18’s, I think we will be very very competitive at that level,”
“They’re a keen bunch, they get on well and they love their footy and that’s the main thing.”
Heathmont host The Basin on April 10 to kickstart their Division Two Campaign. Meanwhile the Women’s Fixture was yet to be confirmed at time of writing.