With the final training session of 2020 for our Senior Men’s squad drawing to a close, it would be easy to think of what might have been after a seemingly wasted year. However, casting an eye over the group, you are reminded of the effort they’ve put in, the resolve they’ve shown and better times ahead with the beginnings of what looks to be a bright future.
Four players from our current U15s squad accepted an invitation to train with the Seniors for the first time and they joined two other youth players who had begun training with the Senior squad at the start of 2020 but, due to the null and void season, have not featured in any fixtures to date.
Young players Henry Taylor (L) and Darby Hester (R) train alongside the experienced Matt Hume (C).
These six players can be added to the seven youth players who had made their debut as part of the Reserves team in season 2019, with one of them also earning a spot as a substitute for a Senior matchday squad.
Youth development, particularly integrating our younger players with the Senior squad, has been a focus at the club for a number of years and this approach continues to build momentum.
“As a club, it’s important for us to open up that player pathway and present opportunities to play, enjoy and learn about football from juniors right through to seniors,” said Senior Men’s Head Coach Danny Moore.
Youth player Alex Spasojevic joins his first senior training session.
“Ideally, our aim is to nurture and develop young, homegrown talent and to give them a Senior platform to build towards – and one way of doing that is by giving them exposure to that environment so they can get a sense and an appreciation of what it’s like, and hopefully hold aspirations to reach those levels.”
Recent integration has been met with extremely positive feedback from the players themselves, but also clear signs of development and ‘football maturity’.
“Often we see a player’s age is not a boundary, as if they demonstrate the right attitude and behaviours, are willing to learn and show that they are capable of maximising their talent and potential, a younger player already as some of the key attributes to fit in with a Senior set-up,” said Danny.
“For the youth players who have trained with us more regularly, we’ve seen a huge improvement. Not just in a football sense, but also learning more about themselves and what they are capable of. A lot of this comes from being around older, more experienced players where growth is maybe more organic than taught – training and playing at a higher tempo with greater stimulus for decision-making naturally lifts their game.”
By bringing in younger players to train alongside the Senior Men, where both groups are concerned the benefits are two-fold.
A first run with the senior group for youth player Liam Bartasek.
“We want our Senior players to role-model the right behaviours and develop a better understanding of how they can positively influence others. So when a youth players comes in, there’s a sense of responsibility attached to the older guys – they have a really important part to play as mentors and leaders. So in terms of what’s expected, they are really all learning from each other,” said Danny.
While it was a case of a season that never was in 2020, the club have continued to lay the groundwork to foster and promote youth development within their ranks with the aim of establishing a pipeline of young footballers who are ‘evolving through experience’ and can bring success and fulfilment for themselves and the club for many years to come.
A HISTORY OF YOUTH
Whilst the current crop of youth players provides excitement for the future, Seniors Team Manager Jarrod Greer is quick to remind us that youth has played a key role since day one of the Senior Men’s squad. “We won the thing in 2011 with 5 players under 18 in our squad, they were too old for the oldest junior team we had at the time. This was in addition to 10 former junior players who had returned to the club, they only left as there was no senior football for them here, they came back as soon as this became an option.”
Our first Men’s squad in 2011 featured 5 players under 18, and 10 others who had previously played junior football at Gisborne including inaugural captain Adam Nadin.
“We then had an influx of exceptionally good club people coming through from juniors into seniors over the next two seasons as well. We had guys like Nath (Moore) who is still round the place, (Andrew) Smale who was captain and well as a committee member, and Roni (Lachlan Turner) leading the ressies until he kept getting called up to seniors. There were many more as well.”
With a quick look through the history books it is clear to see that youth has been a massive narrative of the club. There have been six captains of the Men’s squad with five of those having been youth players at the club. Andrew Smale is the only one of those captains to have gone direct from a youth team to the senior squad without playing senior football elsewhere first. He was also part of a committee that oversaw the transition from Sunday to Saturday football in a bid to keep youth at the club.
MAKING THE TRANSITION
“The move from Sunday to Saturday was all about providing the best opportunities for our players to be involved at a decent level” said former Vice-President & Treasurer Steve Gembarovski. “The committee had a direction of a ‘Big Picture Club’, where we looked at things that would be of benefit for members now and into the future. Ideally, we want players to be rising through the ranks and experience all their football with us, progressing from MiniRoos, through the juniors and into the seniors.”
“We had really low participation numbers in 2013 & 2014. When we dived further into those numbers, we noticed a trend of the older aged junior boys (U15’s – U18’s) dropping off so we set about seeing why this was the case. The feedback showed three main reasons for leaving – poor facilities, poor competition & loss of interest in the sport.”
“We knew we were in a position to address two of those issues, that being the competition and the facilities, so we decided early in 2015 that from season 2016 onwards we would have the Senior Men compete in the State League competition.”
Funding for a new pavilion to be built at Dixon Field had already been secured by this point, construction was due to start late 2015 with the opening due not long after the start of the first season in the State League competition.
New box net goals were installed as part of a major infrastructure and equipment upgrade.
That committee also oversaw the installation of new goals, benches for the main pitch, and multiple lighting upgrades to help improve the training areas. All in all, the committee at the time raised over $1.2M for infrastructure around the club.
“It was like starting everything new again” said Gembarovski, “Even the training balls and kits were replaced. Some kids were still using kits that were 10-12 years old. Our theory was to provide all the best equipment to use, next stop was to find the right coaches then it was up to the players from there”.
NURTURING THE TALENT
Season 2018 saw several senior players return to the club. They had been juniors at Gisborne but sought senior football opportunities elsewhere for those three reasons identified by the committee at the time. This homecoming felt like hard decisions and hard work paying off. Promotion to State League 4 was won as we secured second place on the table.
Social media image from 2018 celebrating U16s Boys winning the league.
At the same time the U16’s boys also experienced on-field success becoming the North-West division Champions before narrowly being defeated in the final two weeks later. They had been coached that season by Tyson Lopez who himself had come through the junior ranks to become a senior player & two-time player of the year.
“Tys did a fantastic job that year with those boys” reflects Jarrod Greer. “For a young bloke himself to be able to help in such a huge way whilst himself paying was incredible. It really helped with our vision of developing players an integrating them into the senior system. The next step was to get them playing reserves football in 2019.”
2019 did not start in an ideal way, by mid-season both Senior and Reserves coaches had departed the club. “There was a feeling at committee level that we would be losing some quality people, quality both on & off field, if we didn’t address the coaching situation.” said Greer. “The next coach had to be someone who could not only oversee success of a Senior squad but embrace and develop on our youth culture, integrate up and coming players into the squad.”
Danny Moore coaching. He took over mid 2019 and thanks to Covid-19 has seemingly coached more pre-seasons than actual matches.
Three candidates were interviewed with Danny Moore being successful. “I think we knew within five minutes of meeting him he was the one” Greer quipped “I think I had pencilled him in even before the football talk began, his character is second to none and it really shone through, I was convinced very quickly he’s the right fit for the culture at the club.”
With the appointment of Moore complete discussions turned back to obtaining a reserves coach. “Thankfully Kev (McIntyre) was available and now I think the whole squad is in really good hands”.
We now hope, like everyone else in Victoria, that we can look forward to an enjoyable 2021 season where everyone and the club thrives and continues to develop their game.
with Chris Yeend
Senior Men’s training returns Tuesday January 12. New players are most welcome to join, please contact Danny via email for further details.
