By Justin Robertson
GARFIELD Football Club has invested in a fresh face and a coach with a vision for professionalism as the club unveiled its coaching panel for the 2011 season this week.
Senior coach Brent Eastwell, in his fifth season with the club, will tackle his third year as head coach.
After finishing third in their first season of the EDFL, Eastwell said the club was one step away from winning a premiership.
“We’ve done the hard yards two years ago and I feel we are not too far away from a flag considering we were in the preliminary final last year,” he said.
“We want to go one extra this year and win one. That’s why I play footy – some people play for money – I’d rather play in a successful side with a bunch of good blokes.”
Pakenham’s Daniel Fry joins the club this year as an assistant coach and a key forward. The 23-year-old played senior football at Pakenham for the past eight seasons and kicked 70 goals in 2009.
Eastwell was confident Fry would make an impact during his first season at the club.
“He’s looking forward to the season coming up and it will be great to have a key position player on board,” he said.
“He has been upbeat so far and to have a fresh face around the club with different ideas will be terrific.”
Tony Radings – a former senior player and reserves coach at Garfield, Narre Warren and Buln Buln – was appointed reserves coach and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the senior coaching group.
Other appointments include former WGFL best and fairest and reserves coach and footballer Garry Wright (under-18), premiership junior coach Tim Collis (under-15) who is now in his seventh consecutive season and former Garfield senior footballer Darren Mouser (under-13).
Eastwell said Ryan Monroe and midfielder Reece Shortis have been lured back to the club this season.
“Having those boys back will boost our playing group and so far numbers to training have been high, roughly 28 or so which is good,” he said.
“But we’ll get back into the swing of things mid January and go from there.”
Eastwell is keen to ensure the club continues to improve on and off the field.
“This year, we’ll be looking to up the professionalism at the club, certainly from my end. If you look at what Nar Nar Goon did last year, they definitely upped the ante in that area and set very high standards and the results really spoke for themselves. It’s something the rest of us will have to strive towards, if not better it.”
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