No fears for new Robina coach Nathan Mulhearn as Coast League side fights to end winless run

ASSUMING control of a side riding a 42-game winless run holds no fears for new Robina City coach Nathan Mulhearn, who says the foundations are in place for a 2019 Coast League resurrection.

ASSUMING control of a side riding a 42-game winless run holds no fears for new Robina City Coast League coach Nathan Mulhearn, who says the foundations are in place for a 2019 resurrection.

After taking a break from the game this year, the former Tweed United assistant coach has been handed the reins of a Robina side desperate to arrest one of the worst streaks in recent Football Gold Coast memory.

After losing 27-straight games in the 2017 Coast League, City improved slightly this year to pick up a solitary point from their 15 fixtures.

COAST’S FEMALE FORCES UNITE

However, Mulhearn, who helped Tweed earn Premier League promotion after winning last season’s Coast League under Dennis Dodd, said it was only a matter of time before the tide turned.

“They’re a club with a fair bit of potential, I think,” Mulhearn, a 20-year veteran of senior football on the Coast, said.

New Robina coach Nathan Mulhearn.

“They’ve been pretty ordinary the last few years – they haven’t won a game in two years – but it doesn’t really match up with (the fact) they’ve got 700-odd players, a good women’s program and good juniors. I think it’s just a matter of putting the right structures in place for their men and things can blossom.

“Obviously when I was at Tweed, I watched that club go from a new, amalgamated club that wasn’t a strong senior club, to winning the league and getting promoted so I think I have skills to bring to that. I’m ready to get back into it.

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“I go out to win every game. We shouldn’t play if we don’t think we can win every game so my goal to begin with is the finals, and if we make the finals then we can look at going beyond that.”

Mulhearn will be aided in his quest by assistant coach Kris Dodd, who will also juggle playing commitments.

Priority number one, Mulhearn said, was putting together a squad with not only the right skills, but the right attitude.

“It hasn’t been a culture of football players with that belief in themselves. I think recruitment is an important part of that and we’re talking to a few players, Doddsy and I, about coming over.

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“They’re quality players so it’s just a matter of slotting them in and then the dominoes will start to fall. I think it will definitely be an environment where players will enjoy the style of play but it’s once we get them there.

“I think one of the things about Robina as well is they’ve got a bit of talent spread around their under-18s and their Metro sides so it’s almost a matter of building that club culture around the men that they want to play for the first team.”