WRFL: North Footscray signs David Battistella as coach for 2021
Western Region Football League Division 2 outfit North Footscray has secured the return of a favourite son who has coached three premierships in two competitions.
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David Battistella would have told you his coaching career was done three months ago.
Having not led a side at senior level since 2016, the 48-year-old has had more thinking time than usual in 2020 amid the coronavirus crisis.
Battistella and Ross Hedley joined forces to steer North Footscray to the Western Region Football League Division 2 premiership in 2010.
Battistella then crossed to Essendon District league outfit East Keilor, coaching flags in 2014 and 2016, while he was also an assistant coach when North Sunshine claimed the ultimate prize in 2003.
He weighed up the prospect of joining a new club next season, as he did with great success at the Cougars, but he will return to the Devils after securing the top job.
North Footscray opened its coaching role on the back of the cancelled 2020 campaign in a bid to find the best candidate, and the proven Battistella proved a standout.
“There were a few old North Footscray people who had made calls to me to see if there was any possibility I’d look into it,” Battistella said.
“Then it was just a matter of talking to my wife and possible assistants, the ones who have always been with me, (and asking) do we think this is something we really want to do? It just takes up so much time of your life as everybody knows.
“As funny as it sounds, COVID is probably a big part of it because you do sit there and think a bit.
“When it (coaching) is in you, it stays there. I thought maybe I’d have one more go at it and if I’m going to do it, let’s do it at the old club.
“Everything aligned I suppose. Timing felt right and I had to make a decision whether I was going to coach ever again.
“I’d been out for three years and COVID makes four, so it was just one of those things where if I was ever going to do it, I needed to do it soon.”
Battistella will be supported by Wayne Davis, Warwick Lucas and Hedley.
He has fond memories of his last stint as coach, helping lift North Footscray into the WRFL’s top flight for the first time in more than two decades.
“I played all my life there, couldn’t win a flag and couldn’t even win a junior flag,” Battistella said.
“I lost one junior ground final, two senior ones. When you’re in a period for that long and the club’s not successful … even when I coached I lost a grand final, two preliminary finals.
“It was getting to a stage where you feel, ‘Is this ever going to happen.’ But when it finally did in 2010, it was pretty special after all those years.”
He will take charge of a new-look Devils’ line-up next season.
North Footscray won the Division 2 premiership in 2017, qualified for finals in 2018 but finished seventh with just four wins last year.
The Devils have been busy since the end of the 2019 campaign, securing the return of former captain and dual premiership player Sam Kater.
Former WAFL player Clinton Farrell, Tom Fenner, Joel Flanagan, Troy Fisher, Guillermo Ochoa, Adam Bullivant and Alex Maloney were other arrivals before the season was canned.
Best-and-fairest winner Sam Denby-Blake (East Malvern), league medallist Kieran Murphy (Braybrook), former coach Jonathan Miller (Albanvale), Daniel Neville (Albion), Reece Duffield (East Malvern), Shaun Buttigieg-Clarke (Braybrook), Joel Richardson (Spotswood), Tyren Montebruno (Quambatook), Troy Manolis (Caroline Springs) and Jack and Brody Vorano (both Braybrook) were among a long list of departures.
“The club itself has done a power of work in the last year and been able to recruit during these times,” Battistella said.
“There’s some new kids, country kids, that people haven’t seen play yet. It’s a little bit of an unknown, but I’m going in with the expectation that we want to definitely make the club strong again – on and off the field.
“I’m realistic that it’s not a quick fix and we’ve got to build it.
“They’ve got no juniors, so it’s not as if I can just pull eight kids out of the under-18s or 19s. We know it’s going to be a lot of hard work.”
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