East Malvern coach Mick Rossborough has bold ambitions for his new side
Newly promoted East Malvern coach Mick Rossborough is confident his side can bounce back after being relegated from Southern’s Division 1. Here’s why.
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Defence will be on the agenda for recently elevated East Malvern coach Mick Rossborough.
And he has assured if his side can master it, they can play finals.
Rossborough – who coached the Panthers‘ reserves outfit last season – has been promoted to the top job after it fell from Division 1 in 2022.
Footy’s stagnant state over the course of 2020 and 2021 knocked the Panthers around, resulting in a disastrous 2022.
And despite not winning a game and conceding on average 111 points last year, Rossborough believes a defend-first attitude can bounce his side back this season.
“It was a tough year in Divvy 1, we have obviously reset and have gone down to Divvy 2,” he said.
“We are planning to play finals; we have lost a lot of experience, but our top-end talent is at a really good age.
“Divvy 2 is a pretty good league, it’s a good division but we’re confident our best team can be around the (top) five.
“We have to improve behind the footy, we got scored against too easy last year, so we have put in a couple of plans to get our defence a bit stronger.
“We have to be tighter, we had too many goals kicked against us last year – it’s just numbers, outnumbering the opposition.
“Turnovers kill you, last year, the style we tried to play – short kicking – we turned it over and just got killed on the rebound.”
With Isaac Morrisby (Caulfield Grammarians), Youseph Dib (North Melbourne VFL) and Jake Chapman (Ashwood) highlighting a plethora of new recruits, Rossborough has faith in the rejuvenated list.
“We’ve got some top-end talent coming in,” he revealed.
“We have tried to go young, we have a couple of 30-year-olds, a couple at 25 and then a lot around that 23 mark.
“It’s really exciting for the next few years.”
The Panthers are also set to continue to add to their recruiting haul in the coming weeks.
East Malvern begins its season against 2022 runners-up Doveton on April 15.
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