SHORE THING
Coach Corry’s goal: Restore Gulls’ glory
NEWLY appointed North Shore netball coach Terry Corry says his priority for the 2019 season will be restoring the culture of success that the club built at the turn of the century.
The Seagulls were powerhouses of the formative years of the GFNL, claiming the first two A-grade premierships and finishing runner-up in the third, as well as winning two of the first five B-grade titles.
It came at the end of North Shore’s dominant era on the football field, and just as the men have battled in recent years, so too has the netball side, languishing at the bottom of the ladder for the majority of this decade.
But Corry said while it would clearly take time to work up the ladder, his aim was to reestablish the Seagulls as one of the competition’s intimidating teams.
“The thing I like about North Shore is that over the whole competition since it started they are in the top five clubs,” Corry said.
“Only five teams have won a premiership, and North Shore won the first two, so it is a hard gig to win.
“It is a clear blanket and we will build up and do whatever it takes but the first year is just about closing the gap. We play St Albans in Round 1 so I will check what the scores were from this year and we will just look to reduce the gap.
“The structure of the game is brilliant and being a protégé of Norma Plummer, she taught me how to play and coach and basically you don’t need to be a superstar to play.
“It is great if you have one but everyone has a job and netball is the only game in the world where they hand you the ball after every second goal … so working that out and not throwing it away and keeping the scoreboard pressure on, that is what we will work on.”
Corry has already started the recruiting campaign at Windsor Park, signing Corio defender Eliza Kramer, with other players still on the radar to bring in for next year.
Having coached netball for more than 30 years and previously been in charge at Ocean Grove, Modewarre, Bell Post Hill, Newtown, St Albans, Grovedale and Thomson, as well as Geelong Netball Club for nine years, he said he was ready for his next test.
“I have always loved a challenge and I went to Thomson in 2017 for the same reason,” Corry said. “They were higher on the ladder but Werribee had won 78 out of the past 80 games and the last four premierships and we beat them, so we just have to keep improving.”