McDowell ponders move

MARK McDowell hasn’t ruled out making a move to GFL club North Shore after parting ways with Inverleigh.

McDowell revealed he had been in discussions with the Seagulls about taking on a role as assistant coach alongside Sam Darley, but was weighing up his future.

Ten days after going down to Thomson in a stunning GDFL grand final upset, the Hawks issued a statement declaring McDowell and the club had opted to part ways.

“I’ll take a bit of time out, reflect and let the dust settle and see what I want to do going forward,” said McDowell, who exits after five years at the helm.

“I’ll just take some time out. It’s been a pretty hectic week or two.”

North Shore is banging on the door, having had “two of three chats” with McDowell in recent weeks.

Seagulls president Dale Purcell recently confirmed the club had spoken with the former Corio and Inverleigh mentor.

“I caught up with Dale and it was very informal,” McDowell said.

“He was saying ‘If you make a move away from Inverleigh...’ he’d like to have a chat to me.

“He said they were interested in getting good people into the club, and if anything happens, he’d like to have a chat to me.

“I said to Dale, ‘If I’m not at Inverleigh and I’m going to do anything, I’ll definitely catch up with you and have a chat’. I’ve just got to think over the next week what I’m going to do.”

Speculation has been rife that McDowell would depart the club and take a handful of players with him, namely Simon Seddon, Jak KennedyHunt, Blake Hutchinson, Dalton Grundell and Casey Meehan.

But McDowell stressed that was not the case.

“That’s up to each individual to decide what they want to do,” McDowell said.

“I don’t want to influence that either way. It’s up to them and what they want to do with their football next.”

McDowell said he initiated contract talks with Inverleigh president Rick McEwan and football director Brent Ling about next season long before the finals, but negotiations were put on hold as the club chased a drought-breaking premiership.

But the trio met on Monday and agreed to mutually part ways.

“They felt it was time for a change and I felt it was time to stand down as well,” McDowell said.

“Why did I think it was time? You can look at it from a couple of angles. One angle is we need a new voice, someone different to freshen things up a bit.

“But you could flip it around and say we went from winning the wooden spoon to playing in finals and two grand finals. Our worst result was a prelim final and that’s a reasonable result for a football club.

“We obviously didn’t per- form as well as we should have on grand final day, but if the whole list stuck together, they would be right back in it next year, wouldn’t they?”

Asked if there was any hard feelings towards McEwan and Ling, McDowell said “No, no. I’m good as gold. I love the club.”

It’s likely McDowell will take a break from football, but he hasn’t closed the door.

“Right now I think I need a rest, that’s how I’m feeling,” McDowell said.

“But I felt like this after I left Corio, too, and that was five years ago. I thought ‘That’s it, I won’t be coaching no more’ but after a few weeks I spun around and went again.

“It just depends on a lot of things, whether I want to see if there’s anything out there and go into discussions and the next step is whether I think I can achieve what I need to with that club and how long will it take.”

The Hawks are now accepting expressions of interest for the senior coaching role.