Recently Swooper spoke with Club President Garry Smith about the 2012 Season: This is what he had to say.
Swooper- So Garry, seems like there is a bit of hype around town about the coming season. What’s changed?
G.S.- Off field things are much the same but on field I think things will be a lot different this year. We have a whole new coaching panel that is working very well together and it looks like we have picked up some very handy footballers over summer that should strengthen the side. I won’t name names at this point because we are still waiting to see what happens but I think a few of them have been on AFL lists and played a bit in the VFL.
Unfortunately we are going to see the changing of the guard in a few jobs though. In terms of our clubs short history anyway. Danny “Fats” Anyos and Darren “The Silver Fox’ Cootes have to move on due to work commitments and the club will miss them both dearly. Hopefully we can find a couple of guys that can fill their job. It would be great to still see them around the club when they have time.
Swooper- Seems like a there has been a little bit of confusion about the coaching structure. Can you shed some light on that?
G.S.- Sure. It’s pretty simple really. We were very lucky to have a coach that could handle a huge amount of stress and pressure last year but the committee felt that it was unfair to expect anyone to do what Hof was forced to do over the last 2 years. We looked at how the higher leagues are starting to do things and we are using that model. In the AFL no club has just one coach, they have many coaches all covering their area of expertise.
Our structure is based on that, we have Mitto (Paul Mitting) in the role of Footy Director, this means he oversees the whole football department. We have seen over the last 2 years that Mitto is a great manager of people so it made perfect sense to put him in that role. We then have the 4 senior coaches who are all responsible each area of the game. Ash Watt- Forward Line, Doug King- Midfield, Nathan Smith- Backline and Simon Curwood- Speed and Fitness.
Teddy Fenton comes to us from Robina and will take the reigns of the Reserves he will be assisted by Paul Javis. Some of the boys may know Paul from Southport. Teddy and Paul will be concentrating on player development.
I’m very confident that we have the right set up for what our club needs. I know it may seem strange to begin with but from what we have seen so far we have seen a huge improvement on the track. I think the fresh ideas from these guys will be instrumental in the clubs future.
Swooper- That’s a lot of staff, how will the club pay for it.
G.S.- All of these guys are volunteers. Despite the club budgeting to pay coaches these guys have refused any payment. It’s great to see that they want to help the club like that. It’s something I really respect.
Swooper- So what’s happening with the club rooms?
G.S- Mmm, I think that’s the question on everyone’s mind. I’m a little surprised the club Grants and Applications guru Wayne Johnstone has any hair left after dealing with this. We are currently waiting for the green light to begin building. Unfortunately because we are located on council park land we have a long list on conditions that need to be met before we can do anything. It’s not as easy as just laying a slab and whacking up some walls. Hopefully we will hear something soon.
Swooper- Any idea when construction will start?
G.S.- lets just say we have done everything we can at this stage. If we don’t hear anything soon I might have to jump up and down in the nude at parliament house until something happens. For everyone’s sake lets hope it doesn’t come to that.
Swooper- You are now the longest serving president in the clubs history, do you still love the job?
G.S.- I don’t think 18 months is anything to get excited about, who said I loved it?
Swooper- I’ll take that as a yes. I hear there is going to be a new member in the Smith Household, will that effect the time you can spend on the club?
G.S.- No I don’t get much sleep with this job anyway so I think I’ll cope ok. As long as it keeps quite on a Friday night we want have any problems. If I create any slack I hope that some of the guys around the club will give me a hand with a few jobs.
It’s not just me with a baby on the way, I think there is something in the water at Coomera. Fingers crossed we all have boys so we’ll have a gun side in 18 years! Seriously though Coomera is a family club so I'm really excited to see even more families being involved this year.
Last Modified on 10/01/2012 16:34