SFNL: Interim Mordialloc coach Josh Jewell has detailed how he plans to lift the Bloods

Mordialloc has turned to Josh Jewell to see out the remainder of the year and he is positive the Bloodhounds can turn it around quickly as they’ve already ticked one box.

Josh Jewell

Stand-in Mordialloc coach Josh Jewell will lean on past experiences while guiding the Bloodhounds for the remainder of the year.

Jewell has been at Ben Kavanagh Reserve for over a decade, as a player until 2017 before stepping into assistant and reserves coaching roles.

He planned on having 2024 off before Ben McGee and the club parted ways after round 5.

Mordialloc was relegated in Jewell’s first year at the club and it was then he learned the importance keeping a group together.

“The best thing to do is to just gel together as a playing group,” Jewell said.

“We knew where we were at as a playing group (back then) but to this day some of my best mates were a part of that group.

“Within the next two to three years we were playing in grand finals; I have learnt that as bad as things are going that success is always around the corner.

“That’s the message I will be sending … I have discovered the group is already very special, the numbers are fantastic, the work ethic is amazing for a team that the results haven’t been great.

“It’s just about staying positive on focusing on the little areas to improve.”

Josh Jewell pictured with his two kids.

Jewell refers to the players as “a special group” after realising it had already made a giant step towards turning things around.

“The first night I came into training, I actually said ‘if I didn’t know how results had gone, I’d think this team was absolutely flying’,” he said.

“The energy on the track, the camaraderie, it’s still a really positive place to be and that’s a player-driven thing, that’s where the success is going to come from”

Mordialloc is winless after five rounds with an averaging losing margin of 89 points.

But Jewell is under no illusions of how poor the Bloodhounds’ scores are and remains focused on the side “hitting the little things”.

“We’re not really talking about wins and losses at the moment because you look at a scoreboard and we’re a long way off,” he said.

“But I go off last game we played was Cranbourne and if we took the scoreboard out of it, we were competitive for three quarters of footy.

“We’re looking at those little moments and staying positive.

“We’re coming up against Cheltenham, which is a really big challenge, so we’ve set ourselves a little goals to aim for.

“If we keep hitting the little things and the areas we’re talking about then we know the wins are going to end up coming.”

Mordialloc’s Dawit McNeish. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Jewell is passionate about turning Mordialloc around but isn’t prepared to pencil himself in as the man to lead it long term until the end of the season.

“We’re a week into it,” he quipped in response to whether he wants the job next year.

“I am really positive about it; when the call came I looked at my wife and she already knew what my answer was going to be.

“My passion for this club is just really strong, we have supporters that have been around for 50 years, my eldest son plays in the juniors.

“I just want success for this club, so if that’s me in the future, we’ll go from there but we’ll get through the next 13 weeks and assess where we are.”