South Bendigo sign Jack Fallon and Troy Coates for next year

South Bendigo has made aggressive moves to rise up the ladder in 2025, poaching two coaches from other clubs in the region while the big name recruits have followed.

Kerang coach Troy Coates, left, and captain Josh Nitschke lift the Central Murray premiership cup. Coates is joining South Bendigo next year. Picture: Tracy Roberts

South Bendigo will be hoping the old adage ‘two is better than one’ rings true next year.

After a tough season, which saw the club finish seventh and miss finals, the Bloods have looked to two premiership coaches to help steer the club back to finals.

The Bloods have signed Troy Coates and Jack Fallon, who come from Kerang and White Hills respectively.

Coates comes to the club after guiding Kerang to the past three grand finals, winning two of them, with Fallon heading to the Bloods after guiding White Hills to premiership success this year in the Heathcote league.

Bloods president Rick Townsend said the goal was to land one of them but when both wanted to join, it was an offer too good to refuse.

“Last season we lost a few key players, so we started the year pretty well undermanned,” he said.

“It made us look at our footy club, our whole football department, to peel it all back and look at exactly what we needed to be competitive long term.

“It was a year we had to have to really good look at where we are at and what needs to happen.

“We decided we needed to get some personal in who have had success and can bring long term success.

“That is where Jack and Troy came in. We targeted them both and hoped to get either one of them but it worked out two of them could come with Troy being a non-playing coaching and Jack being a playing coach.”

Jack Fallon is the new coach at South Bendigo. Picture: South Bendigo Football Netball Club.

Coates has signed a three-year-deal.

The coaches have not waited either to land recruits with a couple of other players joining Fallon from White Hills.

Kaiden Antonowicz returns to the club after a couple of years at the Demons, where he was the leading goalkicker in the Heathcote District league in 2023 and 2024.

Fellow While Hills player Callum Crisp is also joining.

The club will also have Hayden Geddes after playing for Donald in the North Central league and captaining the club.

“Because Jack and Troy are so well respected when they suggest for us to talk to specific players and these players now who is coaching they are keen to jump on board,” Townsend said.

“Our current playing group are really excited as well.

“Pretty much everyone has signed on. They see the value in wanting to play in a competitive and hopefully winning side.”

It has the team confident in the future it can match the powerhouses of the Bendigo league – Strathfieldsaye, Gisborne, Sandhurst and Golden Square.

“Without putting any expectations obviously we certainly want to see and improvement from this year and we’ll definitely get that,” Townsend said.

“The aim is to make finals and get back into finals contention.”

The president added more recruits will be added to top up the group heading into 2025.

But the focus was on trusting the current playing group.

“We’re certainly still in a recruiting phase for targeted players we need to top up,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of faith in our group even though we didn’t the lack of success. We’re going to have growth from the players and to have better players around them will see them improve.

“We want to have 30 senior footballers so when the injuries come the others can play a role.”