By Nick Creely
Expect a more youthful, energetic Cranbourne line up under new senior coach Steve O’Brien, with the new-look Eagles optimistic of their fortunes in the 2018 SEFNL season.
O’Brien, the former Doveton coach and player; who has also had stints in the Eastern league with Rowville, and at VFL level with Box Hill and Casey Scorpions (now Demons); is back in the SEFNL for the first time since resigning as the Doves’ coach in 2016.
And he means business.
As training intensities for all clubs, a more noticeable youthful exuberance around Casey Fields is evident, as O’Brien gears up to bring the Eagles into a rejuvenated premiership winning era, while not steering too far away from the winning formula former 2016 premiership coach Simon Goosey implemented.
“The standards (at the club) have been pretty good; I think the biggest challenge for a coach coming back from VFL level is finding the balance; that’s probably something that through experience you learn, so pre-Christmas we didn’t go too hard, but once we got back from Christmas it was about knuckling down,” O’Brien said of the pre-season.
“I don’t think you’ll see massive change; Goosey (Simon Goosey) and I are pretty similar in our coaching backgrounds, and have similar philosophies on footy, so I don’t think you’ll see significant change in the way we play, we’ll play the ‘modern game’ as I like to call it, with a few tweaks to it.
“We’re about to enter the next phase of our pre-season, and this four week block is crucial, and where we tighten the screws a bit and really narrow things down and fine-tune how we want to play.”
The Eagles will be forced to turn to the future after the departures of Mat Fletcher, Troy Tharle and Max Gearon, but welcome in one of the region’s finest talents, Clayton McCartney.
“Everyone knows we’ve lost a couple of great servants and stalwarts of this footy club, and for their own reasons; which we fully understand; they’ve gone elsewhere,” O’Brien said.
“We weren’t able to match offers, and we shook hands and wished them the best.
“What that’s done is create opportunity for a couple of our younger kids; we’ve had a strong Under 19A side for a number of years, and they probably just couldn’t get opportunity.
“With those guys moving on, it’s created a whole new enthusiasm around the footy club.
“And Clay is great for this footy club; he’s a Cranbourne boy, so for him to come back to this footy club is great.
“We all know Clay is exceptional; I’m not sure we saw the best of him last year, but he’ll have a greater understanding of this competition, and we’re optimistic he’ll add a really dynamic edge to us.”
And as for legendary sharpshooter Marc Holt?
“He’s like a young kid, really keen and enthusiastic,” O’Brien said.
“If anything, I’m trying to almost pull him back a bit, but it’s pretty hard to stop the big fella.
“He’s ticking all the boxes; when you’re talking about recruits, people tend to forget he’s probably the biggest recruit, considering the challenges he faced last year with his leg.
“He’s terrorised this competition for a decade, and you just don’t lose your talent.
With Cranbourne’s season beginning in just 51 days against Doveton on Good Friday, O’Brien said the expectations for all teams are the same..catching pace with reigning premiers, Berwick.
“We have our expectations; we’re all in it to win a premiership; anyone that says they aren’t are kidding themselves; we’re in it to win it, but we also know that Berwick is a yardstick, and we have a lot of catching up to do,” he said.
“I wasn’t in this competition last year, so I never really saw them (Berwick) first hand, apart from playing them in a practice match, and I watched them play once, but they’re an impressive unit.
“It’s a challenge we’re embracing as a group, but we’ve got our short term and long term goals, and we’re all aligned on that, but we’re optimistic we will be very competitive again this year.
“I more prefer to focus on us, and I have great belief in the style of footy that I bring, and if we do what we need to do right, we’ll challenge anybody.”
O’Brien also confirmed they are in the process of electing their leadership group for 2018.
