Thomastown appoints Mario Bandera as coach for 2020
Thomastown has secured Mario Bandera as coach for 2020 with the former Epping premiership-winning mentor ready to help the club match its on-field expectations.
Local Footy
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New Thomastown coach Mario Bandera is not daunted by the club’s high expectations.
After two seasons of elimination final exits, the Bears are expected to be among the NFL Division 2 premiership contenders in 2020.
However after being unveiled, Bandera wasn’t shying away from Thomastown’s lofty ambitions.
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“When you taste success, you’re always hungry for more, and the list I’ve inherited is pretty much intact, so you’d think they’d be thereabouts,” Bandera said.
“When a new coach comes in and tries to implement new things, there might be a light step backwards, but I’m on the same page as the committee.
“We’re in a window of success and we need to make the most of it and I think there’s an expectation that I’ve got to drive that, so that’s another challenge in itself.”
A premiership coach at Epping, Bandera also guided Eltham to a Division 1 preliminary final in 2015 and was in charge of VAFA club Ivanhoe this season.
Thomastown parted ways with Ben Chapman mid-season with Scott Plant leading the team to a fourth-placed finish.
Plant will remain at Thomastown Reserve as an assistant coach, something Bandera was particularly pleased about.
“That was one of the conversations I had with the club. It was one of the things I wanted … for Scott to stay on board,” he said.
“He knows the group intimately but what he was able to do in the back end of the year means I can learn something off him.”
While one of Banyule and Whittlesea will remain in Division 2 and Eltham continues to be a power, Thomastown is well placed to contend for the premiership in 2020.
Anthony Capeci finished second in the league goalkicking this season and Shannon Ball fifth.
Capeci, Ball, Daniel Chadwick, Dylan Chapman, Josh Beare and Matthew Vasilevski were all nominated for the Team of the Year.
Bandera said the club would look to recruit strongly to not only strengthen its list for next season but for the future.
“We’re looking long-term that we want to obviously win a premiership but also build a list that’s sustainable in Division 1,” he said.
“There’s some gaps in the list that need to be improved on and we’ve already started the ball rolling on the recruitment process.
“We also feel some current positions need competition, to add some depth, that makes players hungrier and gets them out of their comfort zone.”
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