After 2019 saw Wantirna South narrowly avoid relegation, 2021 will be a season of looking to make the most of the opportunities available.
The Devils have long been a competitive team that can match it with the best, but coach Steve Cochrane is seeking better results and a move up the Division One ladder in 2021.
Cochrane is primarily focused on starting with a foundation and making sure the playing group is fit and ready to go come round one.
With a number of recruits made prior to last season’s shutdown, another element is to keep the player list cohesive – something which is being worked on during the current pre-season.
“It’s trying to pick up from where we dropped off last year, and we’ve had a good pre-season,” Cochrane said.
“We’ve tried to maintain our recruits, and we’ve been able to do that, keeping the group together,”
“We’re trying to build on that and get them into shape, where we’ll focus on fitness the next couple of months,”
“However we’ve also got a job ahead of us, to get everyone to know each other again, because we had 13 or 14 new guys come in who haven’t had a chance to play with each other.”
The approach is to give everyone time to be able to settle and find what works best for optimal results, to allow the team to be stronger and work together, however Cochrane has indicated will be long-term process that continues throughout the season.
“We’ve done a lot of match simulation and social events throughout the pre-season, those will certainly be a big tick, as we can get everyone to start learning how everyone plays,”
“It’ll take at least half a season for everyone to be in sync with each other, but the aim is to start that as early as possible,” Cochrane said.
The impact starts off the field, and Cochrane ensures everyone is heard and contributes to the team effort but has also worked hard to support every player in their own right, creating a better team dynamic.
“I like to be a bit of a personal coach, talking to everyone individually about their role and what they need to work on, but very much an inclusive coach,” Cochrane remarked.
“I’d like to think it gets guys and on-board, and in particular with our game style, knowing what role they’re playing, the effect they can have on the game and the expectations of that role,”
“Not everyone can get 25 touches, but we need certain roles to be played within the team, and it’s my job to make them fully aware of what that role is and who they’re competing against.”
There is a very strong belief the Devils can atone for a couple of uninspiring seasons and work towards finals football and they will be bolstered by plenty who joined the club for last season but never got on the park.
“I think everyone’s expectation is to play finals footy,”
“We were lucky to avoid relegation a couple of years ago, but we’ve recruited well and got a young emerging list,” Cochrane said. “We’ve got some really good juniors coming through, the club’s in a fantastic position and finals isn’t out of the equation, most sides would be aiming for finals at this time of the year,”
“Jake Denes is hanging around, he was our ruckman and one of our emerging leaders; Lincoln Wong is another one, won a B&F and been training pretty hard,”
“We’ve got youngsters coming through from other clubs, including Hamish McGowan and Patrick Wallis from Vermont (recruited in 2020 prior to the season being shutdown), we’ve recruited a couple in their mid-20s in Nick Mendes and Jarrod Smith, what we’ll add this year is more depth to the club,”
“It’s super important because we suffered from a one-year gap in juniors in my first year, which really made us struggle for depth and numbers but that’s been resolved now, even with the year off we have an influx of players.”
Round One brings on last year’s Division Two Premiers, Mitcham, largely an unknown to Cochrane and Wantirna South – but it won’t change anything or get anyone fazed, with a 100 percent focus on what the Devils can do moving forward.
“I haven’t had the chance to see them, but I’m sure things have changed for them as they have for us,”
“My total focus at the moment is us, and what we can control in our own team and environment, but as the year unfolds we’ll learn more about other teams, and they’ll learn about us, so we’ll have to adapt as we see fit,” Cochrane said.
The Devils are seeking to find a consistent plan and the ability to deliver across four quarters in 2021.
Cochrane has his sights on being able to cover all bases and make sure the best 22 on the park execute what they’ve been asked to do.
“It’s about consistency and having that across the game,”
“In my first year we had consistent halves, then we had a quarter where the drop off was significant; trying to be really consistent in effort and output, and not have an excellent first quarter but then go down in the second quarter,”
“We’ll be setting our game style up to match that consistency; it’s hard to play brilliant footy for four quarters, so it’s about bridging that gap.”
Wantirna South travel to Mitcham on April 10 to open their 2021 season.