New Pearcedale coach Justin ‘Boris’ Hamilton planning a bright future

A self-described “footy nut’’, new Pearcedale coach Justin “Boris” Hamilton has been playing, coaching or watching football for as long as he can remember.

New Pearcedale coach Justin “Boris’’ Hamilton says he wants to “build a side, not buy a side’’ at the Dales.

A self-described “footy nut’’, new Pearcedale coach Justin “Boris” Hamilton has been playing, coaching or watching football for as long as he can remember.

He’s seen what works and what doesn’t — and he intends to put his own spin on the Dales’ job.

“To be perfectly honest my thought process is to build a side, not buy a side,” he said.

“We’ve got really good kids coming up. The (under) 17s won the flag this year (and) a lot of the (under) 19s played senior footy so my aim is to put a fair bit of time into the kids and hopefully put a couple of recruits around them to provide experience and slowly build a side from that.”

A 300-game player — 230 of them were at Cranbourne where he was club captain and appeared in the 1995 senior premiership — Hamilton, 44, has been an assistant coach at Somerville, Frankston Dolphins, Pearcedale, Cranbourne and Noble Park.

He also coached the Cranbourne superules side for five years.

Hamilton’s football roots run deep at Cranbourne and there’s a chance some Eagles players could find their way to Pearcedale.

Former Cranbourne player Max Gearon has joined Pearcedale.

“Yeah, potentially, we have spoken to a few,” he said.

“I don’t want to poach blokes from Cranbourne, I’m a life member at Cranbourne, so I don’t want to be seen as that person trying to take players. But if I hear that players are going to leave then I’ll contact them.

“There are a few at this stage who look like leaving. I’ve spoken to a couple of them.”

Former Cranbourne player Max Gearon, who played at Mornington last season, has signed with Pearcedale.

Hamilton has also secured former Cranbourne player Luke Martin as forward line coach and ex-Cranbourne president Shane Baker as backline coach.

For as long as he can remember, Hamilton has been called “Boris”.

“I played a bit of tennis when I was younger and had a bit of red hair,’’ he said of his resemblance to Boris Becker.

He recalls a funny story when he was playing at Cranbourne.

“I played in a premiership at Cranbourne one year and in the footy record it had my name as Justin Hamilton,” he said.

“I was standing with our runner Johnny Martello and he looked down the list and he goes, ‘who the bloody hell is Justin Hamilton?’ I was standing beside him and I said, ‘Johnny, that’s me’. He said, ‘I thought your real name was Boris’.”

Pearcedale pre-season training kicks off on November 14.