WRFL: Sunshine aims to bounce back under new coach Ben Chapman

Sunshine will have the opportunity to get itself back on track in 2023 as it prepares for its first Division 2 season in over 25 years. Here’s how they plan to attack it.

There is change right across the board at Sunshine.

The Kangaroos have a new coach, Ben Chapman.

They’re also preparing to play their first Western Region Football League Division 2 season in over 25 years.

Back then, the competition was known as the Footscray District Football League.

Sunshine has been a mainstay in Division 1 since 1996, although they’ve not won a premiership, losing one grand final in 2017 to Deer Park.

But they suffered relegation at the end of the 2022 season with just one win to their name.

Now Chapman is determined to help the club return back to the top tier as quickly as possible.

Speaking to Leader, the former Tullamarine co-coach outlined his plans for the club’s playing group.

Sunshine has appointed Ben Chapman as its new coach. Photo: Facebook.

“The last three years have been tough for everyone at the club and everyone associated with it,” he said.

“We want to get the vibe around the club back to being a positive environment and creating an environment where people can be the best they can be.

“Footy is the best game in the world when things are going well and it can be a bit of a chore when it is a tough and long season.

“You try and get up on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays – it can take its toll. And that’s what we’ve found talking to the playing group – they think it’s been a long season.

“We just want to hit the reset button. We can’t control what’s happened in the past but we can definitely map our path going forward.

“After I spoke to the club, I had a really good feel about it. It wasn’t a difficult job to take up when it was offered.”

Sunshine endured a tough season. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Heading into 2023, it appears the Kangaroos are set to field a young side with several players from the 2022 group having already been announced as recruits by other clubs.

This season, they showed they weren’t afraid to give young players a go with under 16 forward Xavier Kardachi playing 10 games.

“That’s something that did appeal to me about the club was that we’ve got a full complement of juniors,” he said.

“Having that full complement means we can start putting steps into place to get these kids coming through and fast track their development and hopefully make them long-term players for our footy club.

“Our plan naturally moving forward is to get back to A-Grade (Division 1) footy as soon as we can. But once we get there we want to be sustainable for a long period of time.

“And you generally find the clubs that are able to do that are the clubs that have a strong junior base.

Sunshine will play in Division 2 in 2023. Picture: Andy Brownbill

“Our emphasis as a club will be naturally on our senior team getting back into the top division but at the same time our philosophy will be we have a one club mentality where we want the whole club to improve.

“That will be from our seniors right down to our juniors. We want to create a pathway between these teams that will be sustainable.”

Chapman is also determined to keep developing the current playing group.

“I’m really big on development and continued development,” he said.

“The big things for us, as long as we are getting continued improvement from your list and that’s to individually get improvement then collectively you’ll get that naturally.

“From there, results will start to flow.

“To be sustainable, it needs to be built, you just can’t manufacture it and then be able to sustain it.”