EFL 2019: Nunawading and Paul Beven part ways

They went almost four years without winning a game but now Nunawading has sacked its coach who broke a 62-game losing streak, citing player unrest as the reason.

A beaming Paul Beven after Nunawading’s Round 1 win. Picture: Davis Harrigan

Axed Nunawading coach Paul Beven says he has been left gutted by the club’s decision to sack him mid-season.

Beven was at the helm of the Lions for the majority of their 62 consecutive losses before a breakthrough victory in Round 1 this year.

He guided the club during some of its most difficult periods, which included several triple-figure beltings and winless seasons.

Many credit him for helping keep Nunawading’s doors open when it was in financial trouble.

But Beven was informed last week the club would be parting ways with him.

*** CLUB ANNOUNCEMENT ***

This week the committee of the Nunawading Football Club decided to part ways with our senior coach Paul Beven.

Paul has coached the club for the last 2 and a half years and has been... https://t.co/0TqtbO4e2G

— Nunawading Lions (@NunawadingFC) June 27, 2019

“You have a plan in place for where you want to end up and even towards the end of this year, you have an idea of where you want the club to be … wins, losses and where we needed to be by the end of the year to go, ‘right, we’re on the right track’,” Beven said.

“Now it’s been cut short … it feels like a bit of a waste the last couple of years because we actually haven’t been able to finish that journey.”

Nunawading won its first game since Round 10, 2015 in its season-opener, and its reserves are within one game of the Division 4 top four.

Beven said he was shocked by the decision.

“I had a five-minute chat with (president) Scott (Cairns) on the Monday and I said I was putting some changes in place for the second half of the year — just training stuff and a few different routines … nothing out of the ordinary,” Beven said.

“Scott said there was a few little whispers a few of the boys are a bit unhappy. I said, ‘that’s fine, we can work through that’.”

Beven said players recently completed a feedback form and “there was nothing on there at all that suggested there were any issues”.

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He said he had been overwhelmed by messages of support.

“There was no meeting as such in the last two or three weeks that indicated any issues,” he said.

“You’re obviously not going to have everyone on board, doesn’t matter where you are, whether it is work or a sporting club, not everyone is going to agree with what is said.”

Cairns said it was an “extremely difficult decision” to remove Beven as coach.

He said the club expected to be more competitive this year. The Lions were handed a 10-goal defeat against the previously winless Kilsyth in Round 10 — Beven’s last game in charge.

“There had been a bit of a divide grow between Paul and the group and it was potentially going to end in a few players walking out on the club, and that was something the committee couldn’t risk,” Cairns said.

“We cannot risk putting the club in the same position it was four, five years ago so we made a decision to release Paul.

“It’s got to a point where some of the working relationships, certainly between Paul and some senior players, was getting untenable.

“Paul was heartbroken about it and I don’t blame him. The work he’s done over the last two-and-a-half, three seasons at the club has been huge.

“Certainly last week was a difficult time around the club but we are moving forward.”

Comments on social media have since been critical of the club’s decision.

“We feel from looking at the people who have made those comments around social media, potentially a lot of them aren’t involved in the club,” Cairns said.

“They don’t have that intimate knowledge of what is going on at this point in time.”

Assistant Greg Hall will serve as interim coach for the remainder of the season.

The club will start advertising the role next week.

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