By Trent Callen.
An indifferent sort of year awaits Mooroolbark this season, with pundits tipping a form slump after a mass exodus, following a 2023 campaign that ended in unfortunate fashion, losing out to eventual Premiers East Ringwood in the big dance.
Boasting a 16-2 win/loss record in the home and away season, the Mustangs looked destined to challenge for the flag, before doubt crept in, stumbling on the Mitcham hurdle in the lead-up to a Grand Final in which they sat on the wrong side of the ledger.
With that now a forgotten memory and a thing of the past…
A new leaf has been turned to welcome in the new year at Mooroolbark, under head coach Bret Lavars, who has been at the forefront of a mammoth amount of change, with the slate being wiped clean at Heights Reserve.
“Pre-seasons been tracking well, there’s been limited numbers, obviously with a fair few clubs poking around, we’ve had quite a chunk move on for various reasons, but those that have been there have enjoyed themselves and appear to have got a lot out of the sessions,” Lavars said.
“List wise, like most clubs, we’ve had a couple of blokes that have been unavailable, and we’re pretty light on for depth, but we’re confident heading into Round One we’re going to field a reasonably strong side.”
Forced to relieve the Grand Final happenings, Lavars spoke on the areas that have been addressed over the Summer, by first identifying the problems that surfaced deep into their September run in 2022.
“A deficiency we felt last year probably when we did get beat, was due to a lack of tall’s, I know Mitcham touched us up in that first final, and obviously East Ringwood got us a couple of times out there, and with a bad one late on.”
The Mustangs welcomed in the tall-timbered Paul Flatcher as a result, with Lavars also throwing the name Jesse Boyd into the mentioned list of transfers, as a counterpart set to be working at the feet of the returning ruckman.
“We’ve also been able to get Flatcher back to the club, who gives us a fair bit of height to work with and experience, we also get Boyd to fill the void on-ball who comes across from Pascoe Vale.”
“Another big-bodied midfielder/forward in Bryce Merlin joins us, he’s had a bit of an interrupted preseason, so not exactly sure kind of where he’s actually at – hasn’t played footy for a few years.”
High praise from Lavars headed the way of Michael Thompson, who has reportedly trained the house down according to the long term coach.
“Thompson comes in with some experience having played at the Basin with a lot of Senior footy under his belt, and without a doubt he’s been our best preseason trainer.”
“So they’re probably the four senior bodies that come to mind.”
The warmup fixtures that have acted as a curtain-raiser for the upcoming season, allowed Lavars and his support network the opportunity to blood their youth brigade, who are set to be thrown in the deep end come the start of the year.
“Two weeks ago, we debuted seven blokes in our practice game, who had never played senior footy before.”
“So we’ll be young and inexperienced, but we feel that you know, as we’re going to make mistakes, we’re also going to be exciting…it’s a good challenge for the group and for the coaching staff.”
Parking the topic of their young list for a second, Lavars touched on the fact that when the game was played on their terms, their game-plan stacked up, with refreshing ball movement on show against Park Orchards.
“It [practice match] was a really good hit-out, it was played in great spirit with the Sharks, I understand they had numbers missing, but it felt like when we played the brand of footy we wanted to play….
We had moments where we looked really good considering the personnel at our disposal, and then there’s always areas where you can improve on going forward, but like I said with so many kids it’s hard to be too harsh on them.”
Circling back to the average age conversation at Mooroolbark, the head coach also found time to shine a light on a promising trio of youngsters that have impressed over the break, despite the added pressures of Senior footy.
“I feel like all our kids are really strong albeit they haven’t had the exposure and/or opportunity to play at this level.”
“I think the likes of Jye Peacock, who was at Eastern Ranges, Jacob Krossley and the Cooper Rouges of the world, there’s a heap of kids I could rattle off but I feel like that’s where our growth is going to come from.”
Although the intentions weren’t to head in this direction, Lavars found comfort in discussing the abundance of positives surrounding the aforementioned walkout of a number of Senior players, commenting on the long term benefits that coincide.
“Especially with the current salary cap and player points system, I think it’s been ideal to be able to grow from your own junior program and then put time into those boys who are only worth one point and invest in our future that way, rather than looking to get ahead and probably only achieve short term success.”
“Since taking over we’ve sort of built it up and fell just short but I feel like this is another year where we can consolidate and look to build with our youth even though we were kind of forced down that path with departures, but that’s definitely the focus to grow our group as kids and get some game-time into them.”
When posed with a question regarding an end of season goal, in terms of a finishing point towards the backend of the year, Lavars played a straight bat, stating it hadn’t come up in meetings just yet.
“We actually haven’t talked about that at this point in time. I think with the group we’ve got, we kind of just focus on taking it one week at a time, as cliche as it sounds.”
“I think we know our best is going be good enough, and then when we play below par, we’re going to be a fair way away from from that.”
As Lavars points out, bridging the gap is important within a team, as well as for a player.
“That’s often the case with young kids, the tyranny of distance between their best and worst – so the focus for us is narrowing that and getting our performances to be more well rounded.”
After a dramatic change of scenery on-field, the narrative remains the same with magnets being moved off-field, with roles changing hands from a Reserves standpoint, as a result of those earning a call up to fill the holes leftover in a Senior capacity.
“We’ve got in our Senior Assistant Brett Hartmen, he has played a heap of footy in the EFNL, so I feel like trying to surround myself with good people again, after Watkins moved on since I took over.”
“Ben has moved on from one of our line coaching roles, he’s gone on to be an assistant at Montrose, so we’ve got one of our assistant coaches from the development side last year brought up to be one of my line coaches.
“And I’ve got two other line coaches by my side too.”
“So I feel like the coaching panel itself is good, despite it being a new coaching panel for the group and it’s as much about trying to educate them on what I want as much as it is for our players, so it’s definitely an interesting time, that’s for sure.”
The unfamiliarity of the situation has put things into hindsight for Lavars, as he outlines the benefits of the dress rehearsals, in terms of learning to be on the same page with his colleagues, something the head coach now realises isn’t second nature anymore.
“Previously when we’ve been together for so long you kind of just knew what you’re all thinking in the roles. We’ve had to kind of go through that and fine tune that, the practice games have been as good of an opportunity for us to do that as a coaching group as much as a playing group on what we’re looking to achieve.”
After finishing the season on a good note, beating out Coldstream in the final round, a sense of confidence can be carried into the new year for the Senior Women’s program.
With head coach Domenic Ciancio guiding them to a 2-10 record last season – with Fairpark their only other victim – he assumes control of the helm again in 2023.
Signs out of pre-season have been positive with the Mustangs outfit ticking off a long Summer break on the track in which according to Ciancio was of a “pretty good” standard.
“I have had a great strong core group to work with, not overly huge numbers, but enough girls training, learning their craft and getting more educated after their first year of football,” Domenic said.
“Numbers are still a bit light on, we’d like some more, but we’ve probably got 18-19 so far, ideally another five or six would suit, and that is something that we’re still looking into, but other than that it’s been pretty good.”
Confronted with a sense of naivety in their first year, Ciancio has relayed the message that in the second season a greater understanding of girls’ needs is apparent and showing empathy is pivotal.
“I think we still keep it simple as much as possible, continuing to work on their skills.
“We’re still very much learning about how women’s bodies are taking to footy and how they handle it, it’s a lot of the unknown, injuries are an issue still because it’s a high impact sport, so we’re still trying to work on how they recover and all that sort of stuff.”
“But at the same time still focusing on basic skills and introducing a little bit of a simple game plan.”
When quizzed with setting a season objective for the group, Ciancio reiterated his point further by suggesting 2023 will only be measured against their lessons learnt, both on and off the field, with teachable moments playing a big part.
“For me it’s trying to teach them never to give up, not to drop their heads, because football is an error game and therefore it’s a game based on how you react to those errors, that is what I think is important.”
“Putting a focus on the second, third and even fourth efforts -supporting your teammate – we’re all going to make mistakes and we’re all pretty much on the same level when it comes to that side of things.”
The bolstering of their coaching ranks has been a clear learning curve heading into the new year, with Ciancio this time around recognising the importance of surrounding himself with good people in the right positions.
“Last year I only went in with the one coach, who for personal reasons couldn’t finish the year, but the club helped provide really good mentors and people I could help bounce ideas off so that made it easier.”
“This season I have two Assistant coaches by my side.”
“One of those is Keryn Ralph, who has extensive knowledge and background with the St Kilda Sharks, where she was the President and head coach.”
“The other is Jason Baldwin, who has been in our junior program for a number of years, he brings a really good balance because it’s still a very brand new concept to the girls, and he’s able to channel that inner coaching ability he had with the juniors and bring it into the Seniors.”