It’s a great time to be at Kilsyth with the exciting young talent coming through according to senior coach Simon Caldwell ahead of the Cougars new Division Four campaign.
It was a poor 2019 season for Kilsyth in the fourth division, as they came second last with just three wins and 13 losses.
There will be a point of difference at the club this year however and the club’s coaching staff are hopeful that this will improve their fortunes on field.
“We are doing it a little bit different in having that one training session per a week in our main senior night,” senior coach Simon Caldwell said.
“We are not training less; we are training the same way we always have but we are just going to try and condense it over one night to make it easier for people to still stay involved in footy and hopefully be a point of difference to some of the other clubs in the same area.”
The Cougars are marrying this new training regime with an increased focus on putting time into their homegrown kids, rather than recruit from other teams as they look to build for future success.
“We have three or four guys who are in the 28-age group mark and then a chunk from the 27-age range and then there is probably another nearly 50 percent of the group that were 21,” Caldwell said.
“It’s not just excitement, that’s this year and next year there will be another three or four kids that we will be training with us.
“We feel some of these kids can play senior footy this year and some under-19s have joined us at training and there is no reason to say I can’t see them playing senior footy at some point throughout this year.
“We really want to change the direction of where the clubs been.
“Instead of getting guys moving on in a few years, we want to build something in the next 10 and 20 years of the football club.”
From 2019 to this season, fans will notice a big difference from what they saw from their men’s team.
“I think they will see us being more competitive in games and hopefully they see the brand of footy that we like to play but also there are some really good people at the club,” Caldwell said.
“I think it’s going to be enjoyable and that’s what I will be saying to fans to get up there and watch some of our games.
“Get up Thursday night and meet some of the guys, there are some really good people and enjoy the facilities and enjoy us becoming a great team over the next one, two and three years.”
The club wants to be inclusive with the men’s, women’s and netball teams doing more together.
“I know Quentin the president is trying to work with the netball team and get involved with them as much as they can on Thursday night at training and hopefully doing a few functions together,” Caldwell said.
“He is working with them to get them involved as much as they can on Thursday night at training and hopefully doing a few functions together.
“The women’s team, Clint the coach who I get along really well.
“We haven’t been able to do it this year, due to covid restrictions, but last year we were able to do a joint preseason training day together, a ropes course, an obstacle course with the senior footballers and the girls football team.
“It was a great day and went for three to four hours and we did it together and then went off afterwards and had a few drinks together and a meal that night down in Mornington.
“So that’s the kind of stuff we want to try and do more of and we should be one club.
“That’s something we will try and kick off this season.”
Clint Martin will coach the Kilsyth women’s team in its first year and will be using his years of experience to help the naïve Kilsyth squad.
“I’ve been lucky enough to coach VFLW (Knox) level and Premier level in women’s footy and this will be my sixth year, so I suppose I am looking forward to watching the team grow and just enjoying the season that’s pretty much being your first year and go from there,” he said.
Headlining Martin’s coaching assistant is Lucy Milkeraitis who has 15-years of playing experience representing Vic Metro in the Women’s Masters at Canberra recently.
The club recruited Donvale’s best and fairest and premiership player Felicity Neligan.
“She will have a good season and she has a fair bit of experience playing already,” Martin said.
“I have got two under-18 girls who have come up and they have shown some promise and I got Shae Dale from Bayswater, she can kick goals and I think she will be good in forward.”
Martin’s wants his side to have fun and to build a team that’s competitive.
“We’re not out there to win a premiership, we’re there to be competitive” Martin said.
“I know the girls are really looking forward to getting out there, hopefully covid allows us, to get out there and be competitive.
“We have a couple of practice matches booked in already. So now it’s just full steam ahead for the season 2021.”
Kilsyth opens their season against Croydon North MLOC in Round One (April 17), with women’s fixture still to be confirmed at time of writing.