EFL: Doncaster East’s Steve Buckle re-signs for two years
The EFL’s longest-serving coach has signed on for 2021 and gives his thoughts on how his club will approach its maiden campaign in the top-flight amid significant changes to the salary cap.
Local Footy
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Newly re-signed Doncaster East coach Steve Buckle has turned his attention to season 2021 as his club readies itself for top-flight footy under the new-look statewide salary cap.
The club earned its long-awaited promotion to the EFL’s Premier Division last season after winning the competition’s second-tier flag.
The triple EFL premiership coach has signed a two-year extension and is the current longest-serving coach in the Eastern league, and longest-serving in Doncaster East’s history after taking over in 2014.
But despite three grand finals for two flags at the Lions in the past three seasons, an ecstatic Buckle said the two-year deal “caught me a little bit by surprise”.
“There’s no better way to go than try to keep testing yourself … I’ve always wanted to coach as high as I could,” he said.
“When you spend that long at a club and you’ve had some success, you still need that reassurance that they think you’re the right person for the job, so I’m very glad they saw it in their hearts to give me another two years.”
The Lions recruited heavily for season 2020, with ex-AFL talent Mav Weller, Sam Rowe and Zac Clarke headlining the names landing at Zerbes Reserve.
However, Buckle said the club would look to further bolster its list heading into 2021.
“I don’t think you can stand still,” he said.
“I think obviously you’ve got your players that you’ve recruited for 2020 and your homegrowns that have been there for some time now and we’ll make sure we lock them away in the coming weeks and months to keep them happy as well.
“You’ve got to look after your homegrown and the guys that have been loyal to us and got us to where we are.
“Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are — we’ve got a lot to be thankful for those guys, so we want to make sure that we lock them away first.
“We’ve got some points to play with again now, so we’ll be definitely be looking to really throw our hat in the ring and bring some more quality players to the club.”
The Eastern league is set to slash salary cap figures, with Premier Division to be cut from $215,000 to $100,000, with all metropolitan leagues to have a uniform cap.
“We’ve started to initiate those talks and given the boys a heads up (months ago) that there was a fair chance the salary cap was going to be dramatically cut,” Buckle said.
“I really don’t think that affects our boys too much — a lot of our boys, especially our homegrown, they don’t really care too much for the money.
“It’s a good reward … but it’s not the be-all and end-all for them, and it never has been.
“What we’ve been really proud of is even the (ex-AFL) guys that have come in like Mav, Rowey, Whitey (Simon White), Clarkey as well – it’s not a huge deal for them either – they’re quite open and know that it’s coming.”
Buckle said the club was in a strong position on and off the field and didn’t see the new player payment ceiling as an issue for his club.
“We’ve got a good network of sponsors and we told our boys that if we had it our way, we’d love to be paying to the full capacity of the salary cap,” he said.
“We could probably afford the salary cap if it was back where it used to be, (but) we’re going to have to adhere to it like everybody else and we’ve been transparent with the boys and they know it’s coming, so I don’t think we’ll have any issue.”
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