EFNL 2024: East Burwood hunts senior coach following Justin Whitcher sacking

East Burwood has hit the market in search for its next coach following the recent sacking of a two-time premiership player. Now, the outgoing mentor has his say ...

EFNL 2024: Justin Whitcher has split with East Burwood. Picture: Davis Harrigan

East Burwood is on the hunt for a fourth senior coach in as many years after splitting with mentor Justin Whitcher.

A two-time premiership player with the Rams in the league’s top division in 1999 and 2000, Whitcher was sacked ahead of the last home-and-away round, but coached out the season.

The Eastern Division 2 outfit missed the finals with a 7-11 record, finishing eighth of the competition’s 10 teams.

While no statement was released publicly by the club, it began advertising the senior coaching role on Sunday night.

It’s understood a committee vote narrowly sealed the first-year coach’s fate, who said his shock axing felt like a “lack of respect”.

“As an ex-player you appreciate the opportunity to have been given the chance to coach … however, due to probably a system that cuts you off at the neck pretty quickly, it was disappointing,” Whitcher said, who was appointed at the end of 2023.

“It felt like there was a lack of respect (with) the way it was done overall.”

Whitcher, who previously admitted he was “quite brutal” at times this year, said the club simply needed to raise its standards to be successful again.

The Rams last won a senior men’s premiership in 2000, and last played in a grand final in ’19 – then in Division 4.

“They’ve been where they are for a long time now,” Whitcher said.

“The fact that I was the third coach in three years – and next year they’ll have four in four years – clearly at the moment as a club, they sit where they sit because they’re lacking in some areas of buy-in within the group and standards.

“Yes, 95 per cent of them are great blokes – but they’re too nice, introverted … they’ve got to come out of their shells more.

“On the training track or game day, their standards and their expectations of each other need to raise dramatically.”

EFNL 2024: Justin Whitcher. Picture: Davis Harrigan

He added: “Overall they’re a great club and always have been, there’s so many supporters from the era I played (in) and they’ve been great support.

“Ultimately, everyone involved this year, including me, just wanted to make the club better.

“The luxury I had, back in the day (as a player) when they were a strong club, I understood and was part of the reasons why things like training standards, game day standards, preparation, all of those things were so high and everyone demanded so much of each other.

“The downside these days is, it’s more about the individual worrying about their holidays and their weeks off at times over the group as a whole.

“Yes, it’s a different culture, but I think they just needed to understand that in order to have any success moving forward, everyone’s got to now buy in to a better system.”

Whitcher said progress could have been made with a second year in charge, while lamenting several key players were unavailable at stages this season due to travel.

He said the playing group would suffer the most from another change of coach.

“The beauty of having year two would have been that I was ready to change some things and do a lot different next year and find out who really wants to be a part of that,” Whitcher said.

“Football’s just a sport that is brutal, it’s tough, a lot of work goes into a football season and as a senior footballer, you need to understand that buy-in is 100 per cent commitment all year – it’s not pick and choose when you train or play.

“In a club where perhaps there’s leadership lacking, more than required need to step up and own some of that, and I think as a group they all need to own that, and I’ve been big on that all year.

“As a coach I actually feel sorry for the playing group that now they’ll have four coaches in four years.”