Newly appointed Tooradin under 18 coach Tom Hallinan.By Brad Kingsbury
TOORADIN has appointed experienced player Tom Hallinan as coach of its under 18s in 2006 and embarked on an aggressive campaign to field a junior team after forfeiting the 2005 season.
Seagulls’ president Chris Denereaz said that the committee had acknowledged early in the year that an under18 side was a priority.
He was keen to let people across the CaseyCardinia area know that the club was unhappy at not fielding a thirds side this year and would do whatever was required to encourage players to pull on the Seagulls’ jumper.
This even includes investigating the possibility of running a players’ bus on Saturdays.
“If other clubs have extra players then we want to work out a way where they can get a game,” he said.
“We might work out a way of putting a bus on and have two or three stops so that parents don’t have to run out of their way to get kids to us. We’ll do the costings on that and anything that can help us get a side we’ll consider.”
Denereaz said the club’s secretary was developing a plan and Hallinan, together with a team manager, had already been appointed.
“Getting the players is going to be a difficult task, but our first priority is to get our own players together,” he said.
“We’re going to do some lobbying at schools and try to get some of the junior players we lost, back to the club.
“After that we’ll have a look at the prospects of borrowing players if clubs have excess kids as sometimes happens.
“We’re about giving kids a game of football. Clubs can be rivals on field, but we have to work together to give kids a game of football, or we’ll get destroyed by other football codes and other sports.”
Hallinan is planning to undertake clinics in the offseason and a team of Tooradin people will work over the summer to bring under 18s back to the club.
Hallinan’s appointment is seen as a coup by the club with the tough onballer having coached senior football at Oakleigh Districts and been an assistant at Newborough and Balwyn, after spending his junior days at the Gippsland Power.
