In charge of his second club in two years and still yet to coach a senior game, Vermont’s Adam Parker is excited to see where he can take this uber successful Vermont Eagles group in 2021 and beyond.
Parker was announced as AFL Outer East outfit Upwey-Tecoma’s senior coach late in the 2019 season but returned to the Eagles nest without coaching a game, following the departure of back to back premiership winning coach Harmit Singh.
Singh wasn’t the only departure throughout the 2020 non-season for Vermont with forward duo Jake Best and Brett Eddy also leaving the club for off-field reasons, but despite all of this Parker is confident the junior program the club has in place will hold his side in good stead for the short and long term future.
Vermont’s Premiership Coach Harmit Singh has departed the club.
“We’re really lucky with our junior club and their program, so we’ll get some kids that’ll come through this year who have spent all their time at Vermont who will get some opportunities at the senior level, which is really exciting,”
“They’ve been training really well, they played good footy 18 months ago and were knocking down the door back then, so it’ll be interesting to see how they’ve developed over the time off when we get into games in a couple of weeks time,”
“So yeah, we’ve lost a few as I’m sure everyone is aware of, but the depth at Vermont has always been super strong and from a youth point of view it’s really exciting.”
For many, taking over from a coach with an incredible record like Singh’s would be a daunting task, with indecision over whether to adapt or stick to what has worked at the forefront of the successors mind.
However, Parker’s already well developed relationship with the Eagles playing group will help make sure the transition will be a smooth one.
“We know if we put our best foot forward, it’s been proven that our best is good enough, so hopefully we can do that again,”
“But from my perspective it’s been a really easy transition, because I know all the guys, I know all of their games, I know their strengths and weaknesses,”
“There will be challenges of course with some of the Under 19s coming up who have never played senior footy before at some stage throughout the year, plus balancing the older guys and making sure we peak at the right time.”
Along with juggling a contrasting list, Parker has been looking to manipulate areas of the Eagles game style to take advantage of some new rule changes, with the former inside midfielder set to meddle with his approach during the run in to the 2021 season.
“In terms of how we’ll play, we’ll stick with that new age brand of football that we’ve been playing over the last three or so years, but we’ll have to evolve with the times,”
“It’ll be interesting to see how we can manipulate a couple of things both ball movement wise and defensively, but we’ll go through those couple of things across the next few weeks.”
It’s a new senior coach for the Vermont women’s program as well, with former Under 18 tutor Tim DaSilveria taking over the role for season 2021.
Vermont’s Women’s Program has been successful since the beginning.
DaSilveria has been involved in the Vermont female sector for a number of years and has seen a fair amount of the players who make up the current senior playing group.
Despite the fact that the Vermont program has been in place for over five years, DaSilveria still sees his job as a development first, success second role, and cites an arch rival as the benchmark for the female competition.
“When we started the program five or six years ago, I was heavily involved, so I’ve seen a lot of the girls that are coming through now,”
“Our program is absolutely still development based, because the women’s game is evolving so quickly that you’ve got to make sure that you stay ahead of it and that we are still developing them and getting better,”
“I think what we (Vermont) did well is structured it(the women’s program) well, we started with a junior team, we built our juniors up and that put the foundations in place to give the girls a pathway,”
“I think Blackburn are the benchmark with Women’s programs, but we’re not too far behind and we’re getting better at it.”
DaSilveria has had experience coaching both genders and says that whilst there is more nuance to coaching women, it is more enjoyable on the whole.
“Girls play football for different reasons, they’re focused on bonding as a group first rather than the actual results,”
“There’s also about five different levels of girls and you’ve got to cater for all levels and make sure everyone enjoys their experience,”
“I think it’s much more enjoyable, because it might take you longer to win their trust (female players), but once you win their trust, you’ve got their full trust and the joy they get when they see themselves improving, makes it all worthwhile.”
Vermont host Balwyn to kick off their Premier Division campaign on the 17th of April, whilst the Women’s Fixture was yet to be confirmed at time of writing.