WRFL: Wyndhamvale locks in Luke Wenlock as coach for 2021
Wyndhamvale has acted swiftly to find a replacement for Chris Moreland, promoting from within. And the new coach has plenty of good news for the WRFL club’s supporters.
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New Wyndhamvale coach Luke Wenlock has declared his unwavering faith in the club’s young senior squad to lift it back into the Western Region Football League’s top flight.
Wenlock said a return to Division 1 was the “ultimate aim” for the Falcons, who dropped last year’s Division 2 decider after finishing the regular season as minor premier.
The 50-year-old joined Wyndhamvale as an assistant coach in 2017 and has replaced Chris Moreland in the top job.
Wenlock who has put pen to paper on a two-year deal, led Newport to a premiership as co-coach in 1995 and has been an assistant at Altona.
“I’m certainly excited. I’ve been with the group for four years and I know them well. We’re very young and then we’ve got the sprinkling of older blokes that played in the flag in 2015,” Wenlock said.
“We’ve got a group of about four or five that, until last year, they’d played their first two years of senior footy in Division 1 and that was all they were used to.
“They’re really good kids, they’re blokes who love the footy club and they’ll be around in the WRFL for the next 10 years, and hopefully they’re around at Wyndhamvale.
“They’re the ones you pin the hopes on going forward. They held down key on-ball posts and key position posts in Div 1 in their first few years, and they were just lambs to the slaughter really.
“They’ll all be better for it, and even last year in Division 2 with another year and some more experience.”
Wyndhamvale spent three season in Division 1 after winning the Division 2 premiership five years ago, suffering relegation after claiming one victory in 2018.
The Falcons lost just one game during the home-and-away season last year before they were touched up by Yarraville-Seddon in the grand final.
Cameron Morrison is set to return in 2021 following a broken leg and cancer battle, while MacKenzie Parker will be back after a knee reconstruction.
Wenlock said Morrison “will be a star in Division 1 when he gets there”.
2017 WRFL rookie of the year and key position player Joshua Harris also arrived from Werribee Districts last off-season.
“We know we’ve got the talent,” Wenlock said of the push to return to Division 1.
“Not probably the full list of talent, but we’ve got a fair amount of talent that are more than Division 1 capable.”
Morrison, Parker, Harris, Liam Scarborough, Tyler Tessari, Alex Hamilton, Elia Tzagarakis, James Tessari, Jack Tessari, Ambrose Keogh, Shaggy Bol, Connor Yeoell, Jordan Montalto, Todd Kriehn and Nick Tokatlidis have re-signed for next season.
It is also possible Geelong league great Moreland, who stepped down because of personal reasons, will stay on as a player.
“He’s on super terms with the club, and I’ve got a terrific relationship with him,” Wenlock said.
“He’s a good fella. It would be magnificent if he decided to play again.”
Wenlock said Wyndhamvale took plenty of positives from its 2019 campaign, where it won 18 of 21 matches.
But the Falcons faded when it mattered, kicking just 17 goals in three finals and losing to Yarraville-Seddon twice.
“We were up and about really early and we tailed off really early too,” Wenlock said.
“We beat Parkside by (138) points (in Round 18) and it was downhill from there.”
Wenlock said Wyndhamvale had started working on its list for next season as it chases a flag.
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