Lions coach Bisset undaunted by COVID-19 ‘roadblocks’

BELMONT Lions coach Nathan Bisset has felt the full impacts of COVID-19, made redundant from his full-time employment as he attempts to set the GDFL club in a new direction.

Bisset is out of work as a property valuer as the coronavirus bites hard on livelihoods.

He was about to embark on his first year of senior coaching before the season was postponed until May 31.

Bisset said it had been a challenging period as he juggled unemployment and coaching.

“It threw a bit of a spanner in the works and just means another hurdle or another roadblock I have to work my way around,” Bisset said.

“I’m a pretty motivated person and don’t need anything external to motivate me — I just get up every morning, go about my business and face the challenges as they come.”

Bisset said he was relying on his network of contacts to try to generate an income.

“I’ve got some time up my sleeve and I suppose it’s a good chance to spend some time with the family and stuff like that,” he said.

“My next step will be to upskill myself in any areas that I need to to secure a job.”

Bisset remains in regular contact with his playing group as it looks to build on an encouraging pre-season.

Players have been placed into groups and set a challenge of reaching a collective 300km as a way of keeping up competitive spirits. “Our group is still pretty tight-knit,” Bisset said.

“They all saw the development and growth we’ve had so far as a group.

“They’ve all kept in contact on the Facebook group and they’re all doing kilometres every week.

“There’s a little bit of a race to 300km as a group.

“That’s just in the past two weeks and we’ve had three groups nearly close to 200km each.”

Players have also been encouraged to visit teammates’ workplaces as a way of building camaraderie.

“We’ve got young kids that are working at fish-and-chip shops, Kermond’s Hamburgers, coffee shops and stuff like that,” Bisset said.

“We’ve put up a list of who’s working where and if you want a coffee, go and see your mate who is working at that coffee shop. One, it gives you a chance to see your teammate, but it also gives you a chance to support their business and hopefully keep them in a job.”