All on the line in final battle
Today they chase a first QAFL title in 22 years but Broadbeach’s journey to the big dance began in 2016, as Tom Boswell reports
THE moment Broadbeach put themselves on the path to the QAFL grand final can be traced back to a football department meeting at the start of the 2016 summer.
The Cats had just finished seventh, a year after coach Brett Andrews managed to guide the team to the finals despite taking over as full-time head coach when Broadbeach had won just one of the first six games.
The list lacked talent but the club didn’t have the funds to chase it; the players lacked professionalism and Andrews and his assistant Scott Abercrombie didn’t have the support they needed.
AFLQ officials had expressed concerns about the age of the club’s reserves.
But in the four walls of the Cats’ base at Dunlop Court sat a new team ready to overhaul everything.
It’s here general manager of football Jason Cotter, Andrews, president Dale Perkins, football manager Matt Littlechild and treasurer Nathan Hobley made the collective decision to become volunteers along with the rest of the coaching department.
“We have all come together and said we would love (the club) use that money towards getting players for success,” Littlechild said as the club prepares to play in both the senior and reserve QAFL grand finals today against Palm Beach Currumbin in Brisbane.
“We all said we can buy a player with my wage and a few with some others.” Change has begun. Players like Evan Panozza, Robbie Blood, 2018 Grogan Medal winner Blake Erickson, Matthew Fowler and Ryan Pantic are among the names to have come on board.
Together with the coaching staff and respected long-time Cats including Nathan Quick and Josh Searl, they improved the professionalism on and off field.
“That was important,” Cotter said. “In terms of preparing for games and then recovering after games and that type of thing.”
Andrews was soon flanked by new assistants in former Southport Sharks premiership player Tim Deacon, Cats legend Korey Fulton, whose 669 QAFL goals makes him the second-highest goalkicker in the competition’s history, and director of coaching Travis Marsham.
“The young guys used to drop off in reserves when we weren’t having success but it’s been a positive turnaround from that perspective,” he said.
“We are basically like an under-21 side in reserve grade now and blokes are pushing up to play senior footy. “There is a clear pathway. “It’s a matter of keeping that camaraderie there and having a purpose to improve.”
Andrews, who co-captained the Cats’ last premiership side in 1996, never intended on taking up the head coaching role when he came on to help in 2013.
“Wayne Petterd was coaching and asked if I wanted to come back,” Andrews said.
“I said, ‘not really’. I was quite happily retired on the couch, to be honest.
“I hadn’t done anything for 10 years. I was the most unqualified coach in the QAFL but I jumped in and started swimming.
“I was not far giving it up and then Wayne quit (in 2015) and I took over the job.”
WE ALL SAID WE CAN BUY A PLAYER WITH MY WAGE AND A FEW WITH SOME OTHERS
BROADBEACH’S MATT LITTLECHILD