It’s family that counts
With last season’s leader Nathan Fitzpatrick returning to his home club in Bendigo, North Geelong was forced to approach the 2018 winter in search of a senior coach for the second time in two years. Fortunately for the Magpies, the answer was right under
WES CUSWORTH: Jack, your appointment is an interesting contrast to last summer when the club went a long way geographically to find a coach in recruiting Nathan from Bendigo.
JACK HALL: Definitely. “Fitzy” was brilliant for us, he brought in all the modern techniques and he’d been taught really well. We just wanted to continue what he had introduced, coupled with what I had to offer, which led to the appointment of myself.
WC: What is your style that you’ll get to add to what Nathan brought to the club?
JH: I like to play the game hard and I like our group to play the game hard. I’m definitely group-orientated and I want our guys to understand what it means to be a part of North Geelong. We’ve always been a very family-orientated club and it’s as much about the supporters as it is about the players. There are people who have been at this club forever, people like Roger Allen, who just want to see us succeed. It’s about our guys having the respect to really push themselves on the field for the supporters and really bring success for them.
WC: If you’re not playing in the first XI personally, is it the experienced players like your brother Sam and Andrew Fergusson that you’re relying on to maintain your message?
JH: I’m very close with the group, from guys that are 15 to 35. In fact, we have a group between 18 and 25 years old who are going to be together for the next 10 years. I’m really pushing these guys to be leaders and to do it all together. Because I’m not there on Saturday, I’ve got to rely on the young guys to push it.
WC: Thinking big picture, the club is really strategically positioned and has a really important role to play in the North Geelong and Norlane regions, particularly with the demise of North Shore. It’s important that you prosper.
JH: You look around our immediate area and there are no close schools and no new families moving into the region, because it’s an older suburb. The kids out this side of town, we have to be there for them. It helps us and it helps them. I’ve played here for a long time and I’ve seen a lot of people come in and out of the club. Kids that have stayed, I have seen that it’s really paid off for them. The guys that fall out of cricket, you can see them spiral downwards. It is a very important thing that North Geelong is helping these people out. It’s not just the club, but businesses like Viva Energy and G-Force Recruitment have the right idea and have been great for the community.
WC: Having said that, your junior program is really successful. There’s a lot of young girls and boys around the club and it’s something you must be proud of.
JH: Absolutely. There are a lot of people involved and everyone does their bit for the club, but Roger Allen has driven that and he has actually done a lot of work with the girls’ cricket.
WC: North Geelong has always done well in the club championship, but a club will often be assessed, by a lot of people, on the level of success enjoyed by the first XI. This week you take on Lara, something of an arch-rival as two clubs north of the city and, of course, we’ve got the battle of the cousins — Tom Mathieson and Daniel Weigl. More importantly though, they’ve lost two games and you’ve taken just a tie from the opening matches. Neither side can afford to lose this one and drop behind the pack.
JH: We’re putting in all the hard work. If you look back on the first two games, to be honest, we were just an over off winning both of them. Mentally we’re not that down about it, we’ve put in the hard work and we know we have the talent to play good cricket. Just on Saturday, we’ve got to work our butts off and get that win. You can go through our whole list, from firsts to fourths, and the guys that have succeeded over the weekend have been our young kids. So it’s really on our experienced guys now to step up as well. We’ll be doing everything we can to make that happen.
WC: Best wishes in making that happen. Cheers.