Tim Bannan steps down as Lancefield coach with seven rounds remaining in RDFNL season

Enduring a winless season, Lancefield is now looking for a new coach after Tim Bannan stepped down with seven rounds remaining in the season.

Tim Bannan has stepped down as coach of Lancefield. Picture: Hamish Blair

Lancefield coach Tim Bannan has stepped away from the club with six games remaining.

The Tigers have endured a difficult RDFNL season, winless through the opening 10 matches, and are now looking for a new coach.

Bannan spent two seasons at Lancefield Park, guiding the club to four wins last season, including a drought-breaking victory over Riddell.

Assistants Andrew McTrusty and Ryan O’Meara will take the reins for the remainder of the campaign.

The Tigers have the bye this weekend before returning to action against reigning premier Diggers Rest at Bloomdale Reserve on July 13.

Lancefield president Joe Schembri said it was a bit of a shock to the club.

“He said he felt he’d lost the players and it was time to move on,” Schembri said.

“It caught us off guard, we’d been in conversations with the coaching and playing group.

“We’re 0-10, it’s not what we’re about, but the theme has always been stick fat, let’s stick together, let’s work together and improve our standards and go from there.

“We’ll continue to do that but unfortunately Tim isn’t going to a part of that.”

A horror opening nine rounds looked to be turning around in the last fortnight.

Lancefield lost to Melton Centrals by just two points then pushed grand finalist Woodend-Hesket to three points on Saturday.

Schembri said the club would look to continue to develop its young players and hit the off-season hard looking to improve.

“There was a two-point loss and three-point loss, it’s a kick here or there,” he said.

“That’s football and at the end of the day we’re still 0-10.

“We’re a proud club, we’ve been a successful club, maybe not for the last 10 or 15 years but we’re determined to get back to where we belong – playing finals and grand finals.

“Andrew and Ryan take the reins and they’ll continue making a few changes, nothing over the top, and tweaking the game plan, which had been going on over the last month anyway.”

Melbourne great and current North Melbourne general manager – and Lancefield local – Todd Viney will address the players tonight.

The Tigers returned to the under-19s competition this season and are hoping to secure a first win in a standalone Friday night match against Riddell.

The club, which celebrated its 150th year last year, is determined to get back to winning ways.

It has made significant progress off-the-field and recruited strongly under Bannan, securing several local players back to the club.

Schembri was confident that trend would continue.

“We’ve had a couple of meetings with players and player retention is massive for us.

RDFNL: WALLAN DEBUTANTS IMPRESS IN WIN OVER ROMSEY

LEADER: GET YOUR RIDDELL DISTRICT FOOTY NEWS HERE

RDNFL: WHO WINS FINALS RACE IN EXCITING RUN HOME?

“We’ve got a lot of young players coming through that we want to develop and we’ll be targeting certain players over the next few months to strengthen the list as well.

“We’ve been improving, that’s the thing, it’s been a slow process coming from a fair way back.

“We’re slowly getting our stuff together, off-field is going pretty well and netball is going quite well, having a women’s side for the first time has been great.

“Our under-19s are back for the first time in a number of years, so there’s a lot of positives.”