Stingrays delay coach move

Poor results to be weighed up at end of season

CORIO BAY Stingrays coach Tim O’Leary won’t be guaranteed his job next season, with the club yet to re-sign the firstyear mentor.

O’Leary filled the void left by Mark Leader at last season’s end, but a large roster changeover has seen the Stingrays drop from 19-3 minor premiers and grand finalists to second last with a 4-9 record.

Stingrays president Mike Nelson said O’Leary’s position would be reviewed at campaign’s end.

“He was only signed for a one-year contract and we’ll review that at the end of the season,” Nelson said.

“It will be part of a wider club review, just to make sure our best coaches are where they can give us the most value. If that’s Champ men's, that's Champ men’s, but if we feel he’d be better off working at Youth League or somewhere like that, we’ll discuss that with him.”

Nelson said missing finals had been disappointing, despite some player departures being out of the club’s control.

Ma’alo Hicks moved to the Geelong Supercats at season’s end, before Jason Reardon departed three games into the season. Import Cam Baker left midway through the campaign to return to America to be at the bedside of his dying uncle.

“We’re always disappointed (to miss finals); we always want to put a roster together that can compete in finals but that’s something we can look at for next year to spur us on,” Nel- son said. “We thought it might have been a year or two away, it’s probably come a bit quicker. But we knew with the kind of rosters we’ve had in previous years that we’d have a rebuilding stage at some point.

“Ma’alo was always a SEABL quality guy, who would have at some point gone back to that level. Even with Jase leaving, he’s been around for a while; he’s probably only a year or two away from retirement.

“The one that hurt us the most was Cam, because you can’t just grab an import out from nowhere.”

But Nelson said he took positives out of the development of the side’s young players with a view to adding experience to the roster next season.

“We look very much at our alignment, making sure our juniors are feeding our Youth League and so on,” he said.