Eastern Football League: Glen Waverley Hawks lock in coach for 2021
Eastern league club Glen Waverley has locked in its coach for season 2021, as it reveals its plan of attack for next year.
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Division 3 Eastern club Glen Waverley has locked in its coach for next season, as it looks to prepare for 2021.
Dylan Price was initially announced as the Hawks’ new mentor in early October last year, and is yet to oversee an official senior match as coach due to the coronavirus-forced season shutdown.
Glen Waverley finished outside the finals race last season with three wins – all against bottom-placed Chirnside Park. The club played off in the 2018 Division 4 decider before the league restructure set it up to compete in Division 3 in 2019.
Price, who served as an assistant under Con Borg last year, said that while the lay-off was frustrating, his team would continue to engage in fortnightly training or team-related activities.
“It’s an interesting start to it all, but it is what it is,” Price said.
“It’s probably that we got so close to it, getting up to the first practice game and then having it pulled back from there.
“I feel more so for the boys than for myself … they were the ones doing all the running in pre-season and putting in the hard yards (but) I was really looking forward to seeing what they could do this year.”
The club lost its two major focal points in attack ahead of last year, with Matt Ferguson heading to AFL Outer East club Warburton-Milgrove and Adam Amin going overseas to play cricket.
Captain Mitch Potts has re-signed, while Price said the Hawks were hopeful Amin would play on next season after 62 majors in 2018.
“(Adam) was going to play this year ... we picked up (key forward) Josh Dowling who won the league best and fairest for the reserves in the Outer East, kicked a lot of goals for Narre Warren but couldn’t quite break into that senior side,” Price said.
“He’s a younger guy so we’re pretty keen to see how he goes, but we’re hoping we can sign those guys back on because we didn’t have much of a forward line unfortunately last year.”
There has also been a push to regain a number of the 2018 grand final side as the club looks to become a contender again.
“We’re just trying to get some of those guys from that grand final side back – so Luke Broad who’s a two-time best and fairest winner, he signed back on for us, and Jack Steinfort who won best finals player in that (finals) series, he signed back on as well, so we’re trying to get a few of those pieces back together,” Price said.
Price believes with no play in 2020, it gave his side a blank canvas heading into 2021 with a youthful list.
“We’ve just got to make sure we’ve got as strong a team as we can field, and keep those guys together,” he said.
“We’re pretty lucky that we don’t have that much of an older list, so there’s not many guys age-wise that will pull the pin.
“For a team like us … there’s not those preconceived ideas of how we’re going to go (in 2021).”
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