EFNL 2022: How incoming Scoresby coach Craig McKenzie plans to lift club

The Magpies have locked in a former Boronia Hawk to lead the club next season, as the new coach reveals his plan of attack.

Incoming Scoresby coach Craig McKenzie will invest in youth as he hopes to turn the club’s fortunes around next season.

The recently unveiled mentor succeeds Kristian Bardsley in the role, with the club finishing second-bottom this season in Division 3.

It suffered relegation for a fourth time in eight years – after it slid from the top-flight in 2014, the second tier in 2015 and the third tier in 2019 and will compete in Division 4 next year.

McKenzie served as director of coaching with West Gipplsand club Daylston across the past two seasons, after development coach (2021) and senior assistant (2009) roles.

He’s also held several posts at Boronia across the past two decades, leading a host of junior sides before serving in development and senior assistant capacities at the Eastern Division 2 club.

McKenzie coached the Hawks’ under-19s to a flag in 2018 and was named development coach of the year in 2015 by the Eastern Region Coaches’ Association.

While under no illusions about the challenge Scoresby poses, the incoming mentor believes the list he’s inheriting promises plenty.

“I’m the sort of guy that won’t apply unless I know I can make a genuine impact,” McKenzie said.

“If you look beyond (relegation), I feel like that sort of stuff is surface level – if you dig a little bit deeper you can find the true story that’s going on in there.

“Scoresby’s got a list with a lot of youngsters, but balanced out with quite a lot of experienced guys who’ve been quite successful in years gone by, there’s a formula there that absolutely we can work with.

“If I can find a way to develop more than just a team, but develop the whole club, team and individuals, I can see we’ll have some immediate success.”

McKenzie coached Boronia’s under-19s to a flag in 2018. He joined Boronia in 2000 as a player before beginning his coaching journey in 2001. Picture: Davis Harrigan

McKenzie pointed to two key pillars – development and engagement – he believes can help the club, which finished with a 4-12 record this year.

“From talking to Scoresby, one of the key things that came out was no-one believes that they should have been relegated,” he said.

“After a handful of rounds they were sitting in the top four and looking like playing finals and then in the back-half they’ve fallen away and something has drastically gone wrong.

“That’s not an ability thing, it’s a culture thing, engagement and purpose. I feel like my strengths (are) development and engagement, so I guess that’s what drew me to apply.

“I’m a teacher so I love education, teaching, developing, anyway, so it (coaching) was sort of the natural progression.”

Attention now turns to recruiting, with McKenzie casting a keen eye to the future.

Experienced names David Evans-Marcius (retired) and Jarrod Hicks are among those to have moved on.

Jarrod Hicks has moved on from the club. Picture: Stuart Milligan

“We need to add a little bit more extra depth,” he said.

“I feel like the senior team has got some great quality in there but when you’re working with maybe say around 22-26 players that will be already fighting for senior selection, that’s not enough.

“There’s no doubt some blokes in the reserves, young fellas, that we’ve got to develop and they would extend those numbers.

“I’ll be looking to bring in minimum three to four high-quality players, then obviously some additional ones on top of that to strengthen the stocks … and some quality youth that we can develop.

“It can’t be topping up on the older-age bracket, we’ve got to try to top up the youth to bring a bit of sustainability into the club as well.”

Scoresby was one of two Division 3 clubs relegated alongside Glen Waverley at the end of the season.

“Our aim is to (close the gap on) our No. 1 player and our 22nd selected player so that the range isn’t so broad – we’ve got a pretty consistent playing list across the board and I think if we develop that we’ll go fairly well,” McKenzie said.