SOUTH Gambier football club this week announced changes to the coaching staff at Blue Lake Sports Park, with former premiership coach Brett Exelby to step back into the senior role.
Exelby has remained involved with the club, coaching in the junior ranks to his see his son come through.
In a similar scenario, current A Grade coach Heath Mitchell will step aside to take on a similar role for the same reason.
It is the perfect scenario for the Demons as they continue to rebuild their team after claiming the 2015 flag in a dramatic extra-time contest, then finishing runners-up in 2016 – both games against North Gambier.
Exelby will take on the role in 2019 as a non-playing coach.
Club president Leigh Winterfield was excited about the opportunity.
“Brett is keen and champing at the bit,” he said.
“He has been a non-playing coach before and said he was a much better coach.
“We would like his presence out on the ground, but hopefully we can recruit well enough to get back into finals contention for next year.
“He is very popular in the playing group – he always has been – he loves his footy and he fitted into South Gambier straight away when he came here.”
Winterfield said Exelby had remained focused on the club through his junior coaching and it was obvious he missed the “hustle and bustle” of senior coaching.
“We have been in dialogue with him right from the start,” he said.
“He has been the runner a few times this year and helped with the Under 15s and 17s a few times at training.
“He was always keen to get back into it, so it was a logical move for us to reappoint him as coach.”
Winterfield said the club had nothing but respect for the job Mitchell had done in his two years at the helm.
“Heath was only ever going to do two years,” he said.
“Next year he will follow Brett Exelby in the succession path of coaching the Under 12E’s at South.
“Unfortunately for Heath we lost some key personnel at the start of 2017 – Bronson Saffin took on the coaching role at Kongorong and a few of the boys left then, plus we had injuries to Brent
Howard and Riley Glynn at the start of that year, – so Heath had to change his focus from finals to development pretty early and carry that through.”
Winterfield said just to look at the development of young players coming through the Demons’ ranks was testament to the work Mitchel had undertaken.
“We have debuted 15 players from our senior colts and reserves in the past two years under Heath Mitchell,” he said.
“Of those, 13 have come through our junior system.
“Nine of them have all played senior football this year.
“That is a credit to Heath and the direction he has taken the club.
“It has never been a personal focus for him, but what was going to help the club in the future years.”
Those junior players have also earned their positions in the roster, with the whole team performance lifting as a result.
“Last year we were losing games and kicking one goal,” Winterfield said.
“That gets to the group and the development of the kids.
“This year we were losing, but still kicking eight, nine and 10 goals, which is a real reward for their effort.”
Winterfield said while Exelby will officially step into the role at season’s end, the focus had already turned to next season regarding the development of the squad.
“Brett has already been talking with Heath and retention and recruitment are our key focus points,” he said.
“Hopefully we can keep some of the young players – we have lost 18 players to Adelaide in the last three years for either football at a higher level or uni.
“Both Heath and Brett are invested in the club and its future.
“Really, we have been very lucky with our coaches over the last few years.”
