Nunawading confident of improved showing in Eastern Football League in 2017
THEY haven’t won a game in almost two years and last year copped some record beltings, but that hasn’t stopped Nunawading Football Club looking forward to the new season.
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NUNAWADING has gone back to the past to reinvigorate the club after a difficult 2016.
Paul Bevan, who has taken on the job of coach, is one of several former players who have returned to Koonung Reserve to turn the club around.
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The Lions had an average losing margin of 43 goals last year and its reserves were beaten by 404 points in one game.
At one stage during pre-season last year the Lions had just one player turn up for training, but president Wayne Devene said there had been 70 players on the track in the lead up to this campaign.
The Lions will also field a netball team this year, which played its first game on Friday night.
“It gives us a chance to get the women around the club and the partners and young girls something to aspire to for our club and our community,” Devene said.
“Most clubs have a netball (side) but for us to have it where we have come from is pretty big.”
Devene and his wife Sarah, who is the secretary, were effectively a two-person band last year running the club but they will be supported by a full committee and coaching panel in 2017.
Nunawading will also have a third team, with Victorian Amateur Football Association club Masala accommodating about a dozen of the Lions’ younger players in a merged team.
Devene said the former players returning to the Lions had added a positive vibe around the club.
“We’re aiming to be a family-orientated club and we are changing the way we do things from the past,” he said.
“We’re looking to get a solid base to be a community club and be the club of choice for people to want to come to and be around.”
Devene said he hoped Nunawading could snap its 26-game losing streak, which dates back to Round 11, 2015.
“As a committee, we would like to see one win as a minimum for our club,” he said.
Nunawading opens its Eastern Football League campaign with a home game against a rejuvenated Coldstream on April 8.
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