Thomastown on hunt for new coach after Peter Bugden decides to step down

Thomastown is on the look out for a new coach after Peter Bugden announced he’d be stepping down after just one year. He explains the decision here.

Thomastown is on the look out for a new coach with Peter Bugden to step down after just one season in charge.

The Whittlesea and Craigieburn premiership coach revealed the demands of the job had changed in the time he’d been out of the game.

Bugden will coach out the NFNL Division 2 season, adamant the Bears can still make a late run to finals – as they did last year.

He is confident the club can pick up a few wins in the run home with games against Lower Plenty, Panton Hill, Diamond Creek and St Mary’s.

However, he’d lost his enjoyment in coaching.

“I said to Rob (president Rob Mazniovski) at the start of the year if I’m not enjoying it as much or I don’t get back into it, I’m only doing the year,” Bugden said.

“Obviously, we haven’t had a great season, which doesn’t lend itself to happiness and enjoying your football.

“I don’t need to do it, it’s a big commitment, more than 30 hours during the season, it’s a lot of work.

“I didn’t understand the changes since COVID in attitude to footy.

“When I coached the other two times, people were desperate to play senior footy and these days they’re desperate to go overseas on holiday.”

After a 35-point loss to Northcote Park on Saturday, Thomastown sits seventh with a 5-1-8 record but healthy percentage of 103.73%.

The Bears enjoyed strong wins over Watsonia and South Morang and drew with Panton Hill but defeats to South Morang and St Mary’s when it had more scoring shots hurt.

Mazniovski said the club was obviously disappointed to be on the verge of missing finals but credited Bugden for a number of improvements which would hold it in good stead moving forward.

“He decided, we talk weekly, and even mid-way through the year he was going to weight up whether it was right or not to go on,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot of things not go our way, we didn’t bank the wins we should have early in the year and now we’re suffering with a lot of injuries and boys overseas.

“That’s not an excuse, it’s just where we’re at.

“You saw last week, the outs were (Tyrone) Leonardis, (Anthony) Capeci, Masaki (Miki) and we lost (Lawrence) Lopiccolo in the second quarter and that’s not including (Michael) Tang, (Ben) Nesci and Billy Samie.

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“For Peter, he’d been out of football for a few years and probably underestimated the change in pressure in coaching.

“He thinks the club is in a good spot and needs to find a coach that can give that time and years to build the list and develop the players coming through the under-19s.”

Thomastown’s reserves are on track to play finals, sitting third on the ladder, while the club’s under-19s are second in Division 3.

Thomastown joins Whittlesea and Epping in the search for a new coach for 2024.