By DAVID NAGEL
THE heart of the Hampton Park Football Club is the vital organ that will dictate the health of the Casey Cardinia Football League in 2013.
Let’s diagnose its condition right now.
Elimination finalists in 2011, the Redbacks suffered a mass exodus of players prior to 2012 and were left homeless as renovations took place on their spiritual home at Robert Booth Reserve. Its temporary abode at Reid Oval in Doveton was a quagmire, an unattractive place to both play and watch football, but a hard-working group, led by president Chris Simpson, kept a strong pulse beating off-field.
On-field, it’s fair to say the club flat-lined.
Coach John Holden and heart and soul players Pat Clish and Chris Hussey led an inexperienced team through an abominable season where the Redbacks remained winless with an average losing margin of 145 points.
Five losses by more than 100 points, four beltings over 200 and a 316-point thumping at the hands of the eventual premiers Narre Warren left the club with not so much heartache, but heartburn, after a season that was hard to swallow.
And it wasn’t a good look for the league.
But it’s time to move on.
The club’s move back to Booth Reserve, which starts with this Saturday’s round one clash with Doveton, combined with some new faces and a core group of youngsters gives Holden hope that on-field resuscitation is just around the corner.
“Absolutely, we’ll be a lot better, but there’s no benefit without foundation,” Holden said.
“We’ve got 10 players who are 17 or 18, another 10 who are 19 or 20 and then another group of 10 who are 21 or 22. We’ve just got to keep that core together, keep improving, and in two or three years’ time we’ll really see the benefits.”
The Redbacks, despite losing Clish to retirement, will be bolstered by the return of former players Luke and Shaun Nunan, Jamie Rondinella, Tim Schwab and enigmatic forward Kevin McLean, who returns after failing to flatter at Doveton last season.
The club has also acquired the services of promising, fast moving 6”3’ prospect, Ashleigh Allen, from Warragul Industrials in the Ellinbank and District Football League and overall will be much fitter after a gruelling pre-season campaign.
“Yeah, I may have jumped the gun and went a bit early with training,” Holden chuckled. “After last season I was a bit keen to get back into it so we didn’t have much of a break. I remember looking at the players on December 2 and thinking ‘We’ve been doing this for two months already’ so we reassessed and I’m happy with our pre-season.”
Holden is aware that he needs to find a balance between not expecting too much from his young chargers but at the same time needs to push them to improve. Last year he played the doting father figure but he will be more direct with his message this time around.
“We can’t let them just sit back and cruise through,” he said. “Last year we let things slide a bit because mistakes were made due to fatigue and a lack of concentration. They’re fitter and should know better now so there’ll be no excuse not to be in the right spot at the right time.”
So what are Holden’s realistic expectations for the season and on a week to week basis?
“We want to win games. Sometimes that might not be realistic but we’ll be going into every game to win,” he said. “Teams used to hate coming to Hampton Park and we want it like that again. We want respect and for teams to know that when they play us they’re in for a tough day at the office.”
