By Nathan Spicer
Excitement is growing at Piranha Park ahead of the first match of the season this Saturday against Port Melbourne. Nobody is looking forward to getting on the park after a bye in round 1 more then head coach Andrew Sturgess.
Heading into his third year as senior coach Sturgess is happy going into the opening game after a strong pre-season by the group.
“I’m stoked with the pre-season we’ve had no hiccups like previous years and got a really good run at it,” he said.
The playing group is looking fit and firing besides a few Covid issues in pre-season matches the squad is heading into the season with mostly a clean bill of health.
“Elliot Matthews our high-performance manager has done a great job preparing the boys along with his staff they’ve made sure the boys are fit and ready to go,” said Sturgess.
The pre-season ended 1-2 for the Lions a strong win against Essendon intersected impressive close losses to Frankston and Werribee, when asked his thoughts on the games Sturg replied “I was really happy obviously we’re in a wins and losses industry, but I think practice games you’re not so focused on the outcomes it’s more about what you’re doing and the opportunity to refine anything from those matches”.
“We’ve got most of our stuff we trained over pre-season right and some of the stuff we added in it’s really nice to see that starting to come through in the practice games.”
Sturgess isn’t hiding anything heading into the year when it comes to the style of footy he wants the boys to play.
“I don’t make any secrets that we want to build our game of contest and defence we’ve got that as one of our principles, contest and defence over attack and that’s hopefully a brand and style of football when our members and fans come and watch us that they’ll see a real dedication to the contest and defence,” he said.
“The players have really bought into it and the staff have carried the message on that’s the most important thing in what we value.”
When asked about who he is expecting to take a step forward in their footy this season Sturg highlighted the progression of one of the club’s co-captains “you’ve got guys at probably opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their careers I just have huge admiration for someone like Peter McEvoy who at 30 years of age had his best season of VFL football, got in the team of the year as VFL captain and has had arguably an even better pre-season, he is primed to take his game to another level yet again”.
“Pete is a great example for guys at the opposite end like Flynn Gentile or Aaron Clarke who’s a key forward like Pete was when starting out his career and it shows what hard work, commitment and professionalism can deliver.”
“Flynn Gentile has come in and is just an absolute ripper, dedicates himself, [has a] learning growth mindset. I think he’ll have a fantastic year and will probably surprise a few people and then you’ve got the in-betweens that are sort of the 25-year-olds like Lachie Walker and Edyn Sibbald who have been starved of opportunity at other clubs, I’m really excited to see what they’re going to do this year also.”
In his third season as senior coach Sturg is learning from the lessons of the past and personally continuing to evolve and develop as the leader of the club.
“Speaking truthfully as a young coach you do tend to get fixated on the outcome and the nature of your response and the way you carry yourself is largely dependent on having a win or a loss that week,” he said.
“So, for me I’ve really tried to be conscious on process over outcome and focusing if I’m going to be preaching review, learn, improve to do that myself also taking a bit of a step back that I don’t always have to be in control.”
Coburg V Port Melbourne, Saturday April 2, 1.05pm, Piranha Park.
You can join the Lions pride as a paid up member for 2022, click here for more: https://coburgfc.com.au/membership/
