By: Daniel Cencic
Twitter: @DC_EFL
South Belgrave has announced senior coach Robert Johns will step down at the end of season 2018.
The official announcement was made via South Belgrave’s Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon, while the playing group had been informed previously.
In his second year at the helm after joining the club at the end of 2016, Johns said the time was right to step away from coaching, citing family reasons.
“I’m 50 years of age and I’ve got two young grandchildren and each Saturday my wife looks after the grand-kids while my daughter’s playing netball,” Johns said.
“Some Saturdays I’m sitting there at the football watching the reserves, making some notes for the seniors or doing a little bit of stuff and I have to be honest and my thoughts wandered towards the grand-kids sometimes more than they do towards the football.
“You’ve got to put some things in perspective from time to time and it does take up a lot of your time.
“I have no problem in saying that I would much rather spend that time with my two grand-kids and I think most people would probably say that.
“There is the real possibility of me potentially heading back overseas for work next year as well – that’s got its own permutations within the Johns household that’s got to be considered.”
Robert Johns (right). PICTURE: South Belgrave Football Club.
The club expressed it is “extremely satisfied with where we are at with our rebuild and approach to the new EFL divisional structure for 2019” in its official statement.
“I think everyone that has an involvement, they all should have that desire to leave the place in a better position than when they started – I’d like to think I’ve contributed to that in some way, shape or form,” Johns said.
“When I started there, we were playing out of shipping containers and no club rooms to now the club rooms that we’ve now got, that’s definitely a better spot than what it was when we started and I think the playing group’s in a little bit better position.”
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Johns, whose side currently sits 11th on the Division 3 ladder with just three wins, said 2018 has been a “character-building” season.
“Just as we got our maiden signing, our captain, Liam Kidd on the park, we lost two or three the very next week I think it was,” he said.
“It’s been different but I think the guys have come a long way in this last month or five weeks.
“They’ve put together some really good performances, one or two that weren’t that flash but we do understand that with a young football side, continuity is one thing that’s a little bit hard to maintain.
“When they get that little bit more experience, that’s part of the experience to be able to get some fluency and some continuity in your performances.”
The Saints have recorded victories over Chirnside Park, Waverley Blues and Warrandyte this season and play Chirnside Park, The Basin, Ringwood and Donvale in their remaining four games off the back of an 18-point loss to Ferntree Gully last week, after running finals-bound Boronia to within a point in Round 11.
“We were really disappointed with how we played last week given what we’ve done in the last five or six weeks and that takes nothing away from Ferntree Gully in the slightest but we were genuinely disappointed as a playing group,” Johns said.
“I think there were a few of our players, believe it or not, sitting second-last on the ladder, and a month of good football, may have got a little bit ahead of themselves.
“We’ve got a plan that if we present ourselves properly in the way that we know we should and can in the next four games, two or three of those games are what I would call ‘gettable’ games.
“The real litmus test for us, Ringwood, beat us by about 120 points last time we played them so if we could substantially eat into that margin and reduce that considerably against that sort of side, then that would be considered as a really good step forward for the club as well.”
