Mr Excitement takes responsibility
New coach: Matt Holland takes the Mirboo North players through their paces last week.
By Chris Brown
MIRBOO North’s senior football team will be coached by a 23-year-old Leongatha resident in 2010.
Matt Holland was approached to take on the role.
Club president Joe Koene said Holland showed a very good football brain as assistant coach of Mirboo North’s thirds last year.
“Matt is a very well respected member of the club,” he said.
“He can engage with the younger guys as well as be respected by the older members.”
Rover, Mirboo North’s stalwart footy scribe, sometimes calls Holland ‘Mr Excitement’.
It’s a tag the club’s president doesn’t disagree with.
In fact as a player Holland has suffered more than his fair share of injuries.
“That’s probably why he gets injured; he gets in there and has a crack and if things go pear shaped he wears it,” Koene said.
The promise of support from several senior players was pivotal in Holland’s decision to take on the senior coaching role.
The electrician admits it was a little bit daunting at first, but he’s now at ease talking in front of the players.
He won’t be making major changes to the game formula that saw the club make the finals in the Mid Gippsland league last year.
“We’ve got a pretty talented bunch of guys and I’m working on the one per center stuff like tackling and shepherding, and also you’re trying to run a take risks game plan,” Holland said.
Holland played most of his junior footy with MDU.
But stints on Queensland gas rigs meant after he finished school, appearances on South Gippsland football grounds were rare.
Holland played his first senior game with Mirboo North in May 2007.
The club’s 2009 most determined player said a grand final appearance this season was definitely a possibility.
“That’s what we are aiming for, but you don’t want to count your chickens before they hatch,” Holland said.
Brendan O’Loughlin, with his VFL and AFL experience, has been recruited to coach the reserves.
Damien Turner continues as thirds coach and Sam Wightman takes on the fourths.
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