STRETCHING THEIR WINGS By Davis Harrigan
It’s a new season and a new determination for the Boronia Football Club, as new coach for 2016 Peter Brown steps into the driving seat. Brown said the pre-season has had one key focus: honing the ball movement and usage of the young playing list. “We’ve been working on the quick ball movement and not going backwards or laterally,” he said. “The last few years there’s been a tendency to move the ball lateral or backwards, and that was feedback passed down to me.”
Brown said the club is building but has also identified problem areas that are slowly improving. “Goalkicking was a problem last year, so we’ve done drills to work around it. “We have a strong back six, a workable midfield so we’ve tried different players in different persons with different ideas and that’s where the change is coming from, so we know we’re headed in the right direction.”
One of the most important parts of the training has been skill development, and Brown’s resume includes work at the Eastern Ranges and VFL side Casey Scorpions. He said he is bringing the words of the coaches he previously worked under to Boronia, focusing on the “kicking is king” mantra. “All of our drills are worked around the kicking aspect, moving from one player to another and getting the next play,” Brown said. “It’s all about the skill component around the ground, and when it goes forward you have to get maximum value…when you’re working with the younger guys they can lose focus quickly, so that’s why we’re re-iterating and working hard at training.”
As the club looks to facing a Division Three competition without the 2015 premiers Mitcham, Brown says there is a noticeable change in the structure and dynamic, making the race to the top more open. Brown says the season holds a mixture of long-term effort and the potential to accelerate. “I’m a big believer that you can always fast track things, and I’ll tell them that in a couple of years we’re going to be better, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen sooner,” he says. “There’s a lot of kids in the side and they’ve all got quality in big numbers, which is scary in one way but good in another.”
The oldest player on the list in 2016 is 26, and Brown says he has been impressed by the talent of many of the new, younger players. “We gave Cameron Flanagan a run against Wantirna South in a practice game,” he says, mentioning just one of a new crop. “Twenty-six of our under 19’s turned up for a practice game, and a lot of them are good enough – I’m still getting my head around that they’re still juniors.” “We’ll definitely be more than competitive…there are still fairly even sides in Division 3, and those I spoke to at Mitcham say the side that pushed them last year was Boronia,” Brown says. “They were the benchmark by a long shot, and with them not being there there’s always a side that can sneak up, and I’m hoping it’s our guys.”
