A fresh start for South Barwon

GFL

SOUTH Barwon players swear it feels different this year.

Maybe it is just a fresh and external set of eyes on them for 2018 led by new coach David Farrell and his staff, but Farrell’s appointment could be the jolt the club needed after missing every finals series since their 2013 premiership victory at the tail end of one of the GFL’s golden eras.

“There’s a healthy pressure coming to a club with such a great history regardless of whether you’re internally taking over or coming from the outside,” Farrell said on the eve of today’s season opener against St Albans.

“There certainly is a healthy expectation and I am comfortable with that.”

Farrell’s appointment last September marked the first time South Barwon had gone outside their four walls for a coach in nearly two decades, following Clinton Wells and James Maas standing down after two seasons in charge.

Farrell said the playing group — which has 13 players aged 23 or younger in today’s line-up — has been receptive to the change, trying to catch the eye of the former Geelong Falcons, St Albans and Leopold assistant.

“It feels like a really long pre-season, but the last couple of weeks has come in a real hurry — we feel prepared,” he said.

“Cohesion between a completely new coaching group and a bit of list change was really important.

“For us, it’s about having an ability to think their way through things — the opposition is always throwing something different at you each week.

“You can only do so much from the sidelines, so what we’re trying to get them to do is getting them to think their way through the game and I couldn’t ask for any more as far as effort and intensity goes.”

Farrell said he had taken as much as he could from his coaching apprenticeship served under premiership coaches Steve Clark at Leopold, and more recently Danny O’Keefe at the Geelong Falcons.

“Whether it’s 5 or 10 per cent that you put your own spin on things, it’s mainly a combination of everyone you’ve played and worked under and that’s how I see it,” he said. “He (Clark) has been an enormous influence, being with him for seven years, but similarly working with ‘DoK’ (O’Keefe) last year had a big impact on me too so I’ve been lucky all the way through.”