Gisborne Giants coach Andrew Hall discusses the club’s expectations for debut season
Gisborne Giants take their first steps as a senior club this year, coach Andrew Hall knows there will be some tough days but wants his team to take the game on.
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Rome wasn’t built in a day.
The Gisborne Giants are prepared for a tough initiation as they take their first steps as a senior football club in the Riddell District league this season.
As such the club is realistic about what it an achieve.
The Giants are coming off a RDFNL Under-19s premiership, so have young talent, and have supplemented that with some experienced recruits.
Inaugural senior coach Andrew Hall, a professional physiotherapist, has worked with Port Adelaide, Richmond and Collingwood, Calder Cannons and most recently at local level with Essendon District power Strathmore.
His assistant, Jarrod Dixon, spent a decade at Keilor working under mastercoach Mick McGuane.
Hall knows there are going to be difficult days but wants his team to stay positive.
“We are very realistic about what we’re competing against, it’s not lost on the group at all,” Hall said.
“Our main goal is to be an exciting team to watch, we want to make sure we’re competitive but we’re not going to play to save games and not lose by 100 points.
“We want to pull the trigger and take the game on, so hopefully we can push a few teams and keep teams honest.
“We built the pre-season on a few things and the most important part has been developing connection, culture and community.
“We understand the level of the competition and we’re the new kids on the block.
“The expectation is we are competitive each week but with an average age of 23 in our senior group, we are very young, and our reserves is about 21. Our 19s are mainly bottom-age players and by extension our 17s are bottom-agers.”
Gisborne has signed more than 15 players for its maiden season.
Most notably, former North Melbourne AFL-listed forward and country footy great Brad Mangan who will captain the club.
The likes of Matt Quigley (Nullawil), Matt Wallace (North Brunswick), Spencer Jones (Aberfeldie), Dylan Cunningham (Sunbury Kangaroos) and Oscar Schnoor (Romsey) will provide critical senior experience around the club’s young talent.
“Our captain Brad Mangan has been pivotal, led from the front,” Hall said.
“Bringing in players like Matt Quigley and Matt Wallace they have also been instrumental, so we’ve been lucky to have some older heads to facilitate the coaching.
“Our recruits, who are mostly very young as well, have been outstanding, their development has been quite compelling and we’re looking forward to watching them grow over the next five years.”
The Giants had their first match together against Western Rams in a practice match earlier this month.
The club then faced Central Highlands power Bungaree and will wrap up pre-season preparations against East Keilor.
A testing Round 1 date with last season’s newcomer Kyneton awaits before a Good Friday blockbuster home opener against preliminary finalist Macedon.
Given the team’s limited time together, Hall has been happy with what he’s seen in the practice matches.
“We had a great hitout against the Rams, who have built a new list themselves, and on that day our 19s played Keilor, which was a close, competitive game,” he said.
“Bungaree are the flag favourites in the Central Highlands, we played them in a modified six-quarter game and it was very close.
“We were really pleased, we felt we were really competitive against Bungaree, and that leads into our final practice match against East Keilor.
“We expect to push some sides … having only played two games together as a club it’s a bit of an unknown.”
Expectations are, for good reason, low this season.
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However, Hall is bullish about the club’s ability to quickly adapt to senior footy and start to become a competitive outfit.
“For me, I would expect Gisborne Giants to be competitive in the finals space by the end of the third year,” he said.
“I think that’s reasonable given the age of our group, we all know players start to hit their straps in their mid-20s.
“Right now it’s about developing and the club has been really collaborative and I think that’s a reasonable goal.”
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