MORE LOCAL FOOTY COACHES STAND DOWN
QUEENSCLIFF needs a coach who can bring in recruits to help drive a higher standard, says Jono Casey.
Casey, 26, and co-coach Andrew Hodgson, 28, told the playing group on Thursday night that this season would be their last at the helm.
The both plan to play on next season, but Casey said the Coutas needed a fresh voice.
“We had a chat with the president Andrew Conlan and football manager James Gladman — we’ve been in talks for probably the last three weeks,” Casey said.
“It was probably more to see how the last couple of weeks would go, but within the last couple of weeks we wanted to step aside and give the opportunity to someone else.
“It’s a pretty young group and the way the BFL is going, getting quite professional in terms of its recruiting, we’ve got to find a way at Queenscliff to bring the local boys along and lift their training habits.
“And wanting the best for Queenscliff, we thought our decision would be that maybe someone else might be better to control that and we can support that in a playing capacity next year.”
Casey said he would recommend the club appoint a coach who can motivate the side to its greatest standards.
“I think a coach who can continue to drive training habits and someone who’s really committed to getting the group pushing each other, I think is really important,” he said.
“Someone who is very motivating would be great, obviously relationship wise is huge, but someone who can maybe bring a couple of new faces to help that motivation as well would be really good for the Queenscliff footy club.”
The co-coaches were in only their second season at the helm after leading the Coutas to a preliminary final last season. But with Queenscliff expected to finish sixth and miss finals this year, Casey conceded the results hadn’t gone to plan.
“It has certainly been a trying year for us in terms of consistency,” he said.
“We haven’t been able to play consistently week in week out.
“It’s too big a gap between our best footy and our lesser footy, to be perfectly honest.
“It’s certainly a drop from last year where we made a preliminary final, but injuries certainly haven’t helped that, which makes it hard for consistency as well.”