Gisborne is searching for a new coach after Clinton Young stepped down
Bendigo preliminary finalist Gisborne is searching for a new coach after Clinton Young decided to step down as he weighs up future coaching opportunities.
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Gisborne is searching for a new coach after Clinton Young’s decision to step down from the Bendigo Football League club.
The Hawthorn premiership player had been weighing up his future as he explored coaching opportunities at a higher level in 2020.
Young said he had been keen to coach on at Gardiner Reserve but the Bulldogs had already begun the coaching search and he decided not to re-apply.
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“Toward the end of the year I’d started to look at potential opportunities at a higher level,” he said.
“A bit over a week ago it looked like it wasn’t going to happen, so I told the club I was keen to continue on but the they had begun the process of looking at other candidates.
“The decision was made they would follow through and interview others — which I understand — and I thought it was time for me to step aside and look for different opportunities. I wish them all the best going forward.
“I’m weighing up all opportunities whether it be VFL, country footy again or even VAFA.”
After taking the coaching reins in 2018, Young guided the Bulldogs to a drought-breaking finals appearance in his first season and preliminary final this year.
It was a strong year for the club as Pat McKenna and Brad Bernacki finished joint runners-up in the Michelsen Medal, McKenna finished second in the league goalkicking and McKenna, Matthew Goodyear and Jack Scanlon made the inter-league team.
Gisborne president John Wood believed an experienced coach would be best placed to ensure the team’s continued development.
“(Clint’s) done a terrific job and we’re certainly going to miss him,” he said.
“He’s decided not to re-apply, we respect his decision, and now we’ve got to get our bums into gear and find a new coach.
“I think that’s where the group is at the minute — even though they’re young — a senior-type coach, I think that would be good,” he said.
“Whoever gets the job, the good thing about our list, it’s still very young because of what we went through four years ago.
“We did our time at the other end of the table, and it was hard, but the beauty of that is the average age of the list is 22-23 but they’ve had 60-80 games experience. You can’t buy that.
“We’ve got to be really smart about what we add to it — I don’t think we need to add much — and hopefully we’ve be up the pointy end again.”
After McKenna returned to his junior club this year, Wood said it would not be right to heap more responsibilities on the star forward’s young shoulders.
“I’d be speculating … but myself, I think at the moment it’s worked really well, Pat’s been brilliant this year,” he said.
“He’s been able to do his coaching at training but on game day it hasn’t affected his performances, so you’d think we wouldn’t go tinkering.”
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