AFL Outer East: New Berwick coach Clint Evans says the Wickers not distracted by talk of move to EFNL.
Berwick’s proposed move to the EFNL is big news in suburban footy but new Wickers coach Clint Evans said his squad has the experience to block out the noise.
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New Berwick coach Clint Evans is confident his line-up has the experience and drive to block out any external noise generated by the club’s efforts to transfer to the Eastern Football Netball League.
The former Beaconsfield player and premiership coach, who was Rhys Nisbet’s assistant at Edwin Flack Reserve last season, has taken the reins vacated by Nisbet at an interesting time for the club.
Just last week, EFNL club’s voted to accept Berwick’s application to join the league, 12 months after the now-defunct South East Football Netball League joined forces with the AFL Yarra Ranges to form the AFL Outer East.
The final decision on Berwick’s transfer now rests with the AFL Outer East and AFL Victoria.
“It can be (distracting) but then this is such a tight-knit group and they are thinking ‘there’s nothing we can do about (external) things’ and they just concentrate on their footy,” Evans said. “Last season we actually thought we would go across this (coming) year and I don’t think that had anything to do with us losing to Narre Warren. They were just too good on the day.
“It might put a bit of a target on our heads next season, though.”
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Despite all the chatter about where the Wickers will land next year, it is stability that looms as the club’s greatest strength ahead of the 2020 season.
Appointing from within gives Berwick a leader who is already familiar with the senior list while the club has not had the wholesale departures often associated with grand final defeats.
“It’s been good having that year to get to know the boys,” Evans said. “You’ve got that rapport with them.
“We’ve got pretty much the same list. There was a bit of noise that we'd lose six or eight at the end of the season but 95 per cent of the list has signed on again.
“We haven’t really gone out looking for recruits.”
Evans said the Wickers are blessed with plenty of depth pushing the senior squad, the reserves losing last year’s grand final to Narre Warren by a point while the under-18s claimed the flag with a win over Beaconsfield in the decider.
But above all else, Evans said there is a steely resolve about the place that the Wickers will maintain their recent run of grand final appearances and go one better than last year’s disappointment.
Berwick has played in the senior grand final every year since 2015, for three flags, and the club is determined to make it six on the trot next year.
To that end Evans said the senior list would put in a big pre-season — 65 were on the training track last week — to make sure they “were fully fit and get their hunger back”.
“They’ve been there five times and what we have to do is tweak things a bit to keep them hungry again,” he said.
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