WRFL 2021: West Footscray coach Ian Fox full of optimism
The WRFL club has waved goodbye to some big names, but new coach Ian Fox is positive about the Roosters’ prospects this year.
Western
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New West Footscray coach Ian Fox will undoubtedly have some heavy lifting to do in the months and years ahead but it is not a task he is unfamiliar with.
“When I started down at Altona, both the reserves and seniors didn’t make the finals,” Fox said.
“By the time I finished reserves coaching, we’d won the premiership and played in a couple of grand finals.”
Fox spent five seasons as a senior assistant coach at the Vikings in the top flight of the Western Region Football League and led the club’s reserves to the ultimate prize in 2018, while the senior side established itself as a regular finalist during his stint.
The 54-year-old has taken charge at the Roosters after Shane Lucas’s sudden resignation last month.
Fox was set to be at Braybrook this year, but ultimately could not resist the opportunity to lead his own team for the first time in the senior ranks.
West Footscray has been rebuilding the past four seasons after qualifying for the 2015 decider and claimed five wins in 2019.
The Division 2 outfit has won 13 games since its grand final defeat, underlining its struggles, but 10 of those have come in the past two campaigns.
Fox, who is passionate about development and has a background in junior coaching, said he was satisfied with “what we’re trying to do as a football club moving forward”.
He credited Lucas for his efforts over the past four seasons and is keen to build on the progress in recent years while making the club attractive for past players and potential recruits.
“They’ve built up a very strong junior program, which is quite a difficult thing to do in that location, and a lot of other clubs haven’t been able to do that,” Fox said.
“I’m excited about making sure we get competitive for the now but also have a good framework in place to allow the juniors to have a good pathway.”
The Roosters are set to lose star 2020 recruit and former Carlton midfielder Nick Graham to Spotswood, while Brian Graham and Brenton Quinn have joined Sunshine.
But Fox said he was hopeful they would retain the “majority of the list” as he prepares to oversee his first training session on Tuesday.
“There are quite a few players I’m talking to to get down, some good quality footballers that will fit into what we’re trying to do,” he said.
“I’m quite confident we’ll be competitive and seriously competitive, not just there to make up numbers.”
Fox said he was not concerned by the limited preparation time ahead of the opening round on April 10.
He noted the coronavirus pandemic had impacted all clubs after a cancelled 2020 campaign.
“The hardest thing is really getting in contact with all the players, getting them to come down and start working on how we want them to play, what we stand for, different game styles and just get to know the players more than anything else,” Fox said.
“The actual preparation, I’m pretty confident we’ll be able to get that done by Round 1 and built on it during the year.”
West Footscray will face Newport away from home in Round 1.
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