Newtown & Chilwell coach Damien McMahon says a 22-point loss to Leopold was ‘gut-wrenching’

Newtown & Chilwell coach Damien McMahon has admitted a crushing 22-point loss to Leopold in the GFL elimination final made him question his position, albeit briefly.

A shattered Newtown & Chilwell coach Damien McMahon has admitted recent results had given him pause for thought and question if he was the right man for the job in 2024.

McMahon, who is not yet contracted for next year but is expected to re-sign, told the Geelong Advertiser post-match losing to Leopold by 22 points in an elimination final on Sunday was “gut-wrenching” and had already provided plenty of fodder for self-reflection.

Newtown had three more scoring shots than the Lions at West Oval Reserve, but crucially produced 1.8 in the final term to bow out of the 2023 finals race.

It capped off an up and down season for the Towners.

After winning the first seven matches in a row — with the seventh being against reigning premier St Mary’s – the back-end was noted for their inability to string together multiple wins.

“Any coach who falls short always thinks: what can you do better and have we prepared them well enough? It stings a bit,” McMahon said.

Newtown & Chilwell coach Damien McMahon. Picture: Mark Wilson

“It makes you rethink: ‘Are you, I suppose, doing the right thing by continuing?

“Always makes you question what have we done to alter (our form) from our first half of the season.”

However, McMahon is convinced he is the man for the job in 2024.

“I’m certainly ready to go,” he said.

“I sleep pretty well at night knowing we work really hard as a coaching group, we’ve surrounded our players with probably one of the most experienced coaching groups going around.

“Every year our assistant coaches are getting calls from other clubs trying to recruit them.”

McMahon said there were a host of reasons why the Towners lost momentum this year, including player availability, a dip in form and the opposition simply improving, after the Eagles played off in a preliminary final last year against the Lions.

He pointed to forward Lachlan Bond, who missed a sitter from about 20m out late in the final term, as one of his key players down on confidence.

“He was probably the leading goal kicker at one stage ... ends up playing in defence basically based on his confidence in front of goal,” he said.

“We had an awesome pre-season, the best we’ve had, seven wins in a row probably summed that up.

Matty Lloyd provided plenty of dash off half back for Newtown & Chilwell. Picture: David Smith.

“It didn’t work out for us as we’d like this season.”

He also said Liam Nash’s latter season performances had been curtailed by injury.

“He probably run out of gas a little bit, he had some injury concerns later on,” McMahon said.

“He’s been a fantastic recruit to our competition and to our club

“Every club in the comp would have had him.”

He also said Matty Lloyd provided some strong drive from half back, picking up 28 touches on Sunday with two goals.

“He’s had a great season,” he said.

“He’s become a bona fide, very high level GFL footballer that plays the odd VFL game, we’re pretty lucky to have him.

“He bleeds red and black when he’s playing for us.”

McMahon said the Eagles missed some “sitters” during the game, which would have changed the complexion of the match.

“There were a few other opportunities we didn’t quite make the most of,” he said.

“It’s pretty gut wrenching really,

“We were in a fair dogfight for most of the game.

Liam Nash kicked a first quarter goal for Newtown & Chilwell. Picture: David Smith.

“We played some great footy in the third quarter, stormed back in and kicked four goals in a row.

“It was a good response to what was a pretty average start to the quarter.

“I felt we put ourselves in a position where we could run away with it in the last.”

However, he praised the Lions’ pressure and superior ball use, who were able to conjure goals far easier.

“We made a lot of fundamental errors, a few of our young players probably missed some kicks that probably cost us goals, in the second quarter in particular,” he said.

“Probably sums up our back end of the season, our form has been up and down.

“We’ve really struggled to kick the goals that we needed to win. Today’s a good example of that.”

Originally published as Newtown & Chilwell coach Damien McMahon says a 22-point loss to Leopold was ‘gut-wrenching’