Ouyen United on the hunt for player-coach in the Sunraysia league
While a club in the state’s north has only just advertised for a new senior coach, officials aren’t concerned about falling behind in 2025. Here’s why and the reasoning for the late search.
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Ouyen United is confident everything is on track for next season despite advertising this week to find a new senior coach.
Usually at this time of the year most if not all teams have their coaching set up finalised for the upcoming season.
But the Sunraysia league outfit posted an advertisement looking for a coach, adding there were plenty of work opportunities in the community for the successful candidate.
The idea came from Ouyen United vice-president Andrew Willsmore who said despite a search over the past few months no coach has stepped forward yet.
“We decided to advertise for the first time in a while to see if we can get outside attention,” he revealed.
“We’ve had a few applicants. We haven’t found the perfect one we’re after.
“We just never found the right one, so we thought we wouldn’t settle, we’d try this approach.
“We would have loved to have one locked in July but we just didn’t get one.”
Willsmore said the club wanted a playing coach, one who could steer the club forward.
“We’ve got a back up plan but we are still looking for that playing coach,” he said.
“We’re just looking for something outside of the box. It could be a one in a thousand chance of jagging someone.
“But we couldn’t find exactly what we were after so we gave this a crack.”
Despite the absence of a coach, it hasn’t stopped the club recruiting with former AFL player Corey Gregson returning to the club after playing in South Australia last season.
But Willsmore hopes a new coach can help attract new players to the club to help push towards a finals berth in 2025.
It’s been three years since the 2016 and 2018 Sunraysia league premier made the finals.
“We fully plan on aiming for finals in 2025,” he said.
“We’ve picked up several players, so we’ve done well there.
“But we’ve been finding it tough to attract. It’s nothing wrong with the club, it’s where we are.”
Willsmore said most Mildura players stay with clubs in the city and it’s hard to get people up north to either Ouyen or surrounding towns.
They hope a new coach can help bring a couple of players up to fill the void.
Anyone interested in joining can contact Willsmore on 0429 946 320 or email oufnc.president@gmail.com.
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