EDFL: Kyle Hardingham to coach Essendon Doutta Stars in 2020

Kyle Hardingham has detailed Essendon Doutta Stars’ off-season recruiting plans after putting pen to paper for a second year in the top job.

Essendon Doutta Stars coach Kyle Hardingham will continue at the helm in 2020. Picture: Jamie Morey

Essendon Doutta Stars will target experienced talent over the off-season as they look to climb the EDFL Premier Division ladder.

Kyle Hardingham, who is in his first season as coach, has re-signed for 2020 and said the club needed to be active over summer to decrease the load its young players were shouldering.

The Stars sit in seventh position on the ladder with a 5-10 record with three rounds remaining, an improvement on their three victories in 2018.

“Definitely happy with the young kids, but the big thing for us is we need to probably recruit a bit more mature and look for some mature-age players to really help with setting our systems and helping our young players improve,” Hardingham said.

“At the moment, there’s probably too much on the young group to do themselves.

“You look at the real quality sides in this competition, (experience) is probably what brings success.

“Having a good balance is probably the key. We just don’t have that at the moment.

“We’ve got a lot of young kids and not enough older heads to help them.”

The Stars have a good core of senior players, led by ex-AFL pair Hardingham and Jordan Schroder, along with Jordan Rogers and Jordan Angus.

Gun midfielder Jordan Schroder in action. Picture: David Crosling

Former VFL forward Alex Boyse has only made five appearances in 2019 because of injury, while Footscray premiership player Mitch Jensen returned from a stint at Romsey in July.

Karl Brown has also not played this year after suffering a serious knee injury during pre-season.

Hardingham said a full season from that trio would make the Stars “a different side”.

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“Realistically, putting a cap on wins probably isn’t where we want to be — it’s more about the gradual improvement of the group,” he said.

“In some phases of the game we’ve definitely improved, but in others there’s still a long way to go.

“That’s the biggest excitement for me — how young this group is and how much more improvement we can get out of them.

“Then you add a little bit more experience to that group, and hopefully that really helps.”

Hardingham also heaped praise on young full-back Dalton Comito, who has impressed in his duels with the competition’s gun forwards.

“He’s only 19 and he’s playing on all these very experienced forwards, and he’s done the job on most of them,” he said.

“For him, he’s got so many years ahead of him to become one of the premier defenders in the competition.

“The way he’s handled himself this year, there’s no reason why that can’t be a possibility.”

Hardingham said it was an easy decision to recommit for next season.

“One year just doesn’t really give you enough time to really implement any of your systems,” he said.

“The group we’ve got, I’m really excited with what we can do.”

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