Seniors coach Michael Scott is leading Olinda-Ferny Creek Football Club towards success. 54929
By Casey Neill
OLINDA-FERNY Creek senior footy coach Michael Scott is bringing the side back to its best, after taking over the reins during a tumultuous time for the club.
The club’s coach walked away before the 2008 season, leaving an inexperienced side rudderless.
“So I went on a committee to find a coach and we got together for a couple of months and met people,” Scott said.
“We struggled to find a coach because we’d performed so poorly. No one really wanted to take it on.
“It was easier for me to coach than to keep looking for another coach.”
The Bloods took home the 2008 wooden spoon and was relegated to the second division of the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League.
“When I took over we were very ordinary,” Scott said.
“We’re not paying big money to drag people in. We’re just working on locals.
“Pretty much every kid in our side has come through our juniors, and a couple along the way are just mates.
“We’ve got guys who are playing who’d never played footy before.”
Scott, 40, decided to promote the club’s young guns to the senior ranks and the side started kicking goals.
In 2009 the club won an unprecedented three division two flags – seniors, reserves and under-18s – to earn a spot back in the first division.
Their success continued last year. The under-18s took home the premiership, the reserves just missed out on the grand final, and the seniors played finals.
“It was a tough year for us. It took us a while to get used to the pace of the game,” Scott said.
He said the results were testament “to the guys who hung in there and hoped like crazy success would come”.
“It’s all paying dividends for them now,” he said.
And for Scott, too. He took out last year’s Eastern Region Coach of the Year for his efforts.
The region includes more than 60 clubs in the YVMDFL and Eastern Football League.
“It’s not something you even think about,” he said.
“All you think about is developing players and premierships pretty much.”
When he accepted his award, Scott thanked assistant coach Scott Tregoning and his leadership group for sticking with the club, and football manager Chris Riddiford who had helped rebuild the playing group.
“We had 14 people at training three or four years ago. Now we get 50 or 60 to training, our social functions are big,” Scott said.
“So we’re doing well on and off-field. It’s a whole culture now. We’re a lot more professional than we had been.”
Scott said his seniors were “a good group of self-starters” who strived to achieve.
The club’s under-18s are also an integral part of the side. He’s keen to keep them at the Bloods long-term and gives them a run in the seniors as often as possible.
“It gives them a good taste and they know what they need to do pre-season to strengthen up and get their fitness levels up,” he said.
“We’ve got kids at the moment who have played two years of seniors already and the year coming up now is going to be their first year of seniors.
“We’ve got a really good building block for the next 10 years.”
Scott, an eight-time club best and fairest winner, has his eyes on making the finals again this year. The side is seventh on the ladder with two wins, three losses and a draw.
“A premiership might be a couple of years away for us. But we’ve just got to keep pushing finals, get that finals experience under our belt,” he said.
