Eltham coach Rob Hyde reflects on grand final defeat, how club will bounce back
Departing Eltham coach Rob Hyde said the club was disappointed but not devastated after its grand final defeat, confident it would quickly bounce back.
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Departing Eltham coach Rob Hyde has no doubt his young team will bounce back in 2023.
The Panthers fell to Banyule by 25 points in the NFL Division 2 grand final on Saturday, the club’s second grand final loss in three completed seasons.
However, unlike 2018, the team was largely made up of young talent after several experienced stars departed over the summer.
Hyde believes if Eltham can add a couple of key pieces for 2023, the club would be back on the big stage and, most importantly, be better prepared for a return to Division 1 with another year under his players’ belts.
“You lose a grand final and you’re not disappointed there’s something wrong with you but we’re not devastated,” he said.
“I’ve said during the course of the year with who we lost in terms of experience, the way we finished the home-and-away season was terrific, the development of the kids was really good.
“The club needs to target three or four areas but the average age is 21 and if we target those areas and these kids get another year under their belt we’ll be there again.
“We’ve always been thereabouts but I think it’s different this time.
“There’s not a whole lot of older blokes that have got to front up again, there’s a whole set of younger blokes that will learn from this and if we can top up in certain areas they’ll be up and about again next year.”
Eltham played the grand final with 28 of a possible 46 player points.
Only three players from the selected 22 were not one-pointers – Matt Byron, Finnbar Maley and Declan Ayres.
The Panthers didn’t walk away empty-handed, winning the reserve grade premiership with an 83-point win over Diamond Creek, while the club’s top under-19 team made Division 1 finals.
Trailing by 34 points at three-quarter-time, Eltham would have been forgiven for fading out in the final term.
However, Hyde was proud of his young players’ determination to finish strongly and win the fourth quarter.
“(Banyule’s) were just more polished and their class came through,” he said.
“Realistically, they had 10 more scoring shots so, if we’re honest, we could have got done by eight or nine goals.
“I said at three-quarter-time, you get to a grand final and you know you’re going to struggle to win, you can drop away and lose by 10 goals and we didn’t do that.
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“We kicked two or three and still persisted even though we were out of the game.”
Young gun Dan Owen finished with three goals, while Declan Ayres was named the team’s best in defeat, along with Mikael Avramov, Daniel Horsfield, Owen and Maley.
The Panthers will now commence a coaching search to replace Hyde after three years in the job.
The highly-respected coach led the Panthers through the 2020 COVID-cancelled season and shortened 2021 campaign before leading the club to within a game of promotion.
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