By DAVID NAGEL
THE Cranbourne Football Club has laid a golden egg with the appointment of Simon Goosey as its coach for the inaugural South East Football Netball League season in 2015.
One of the truly great full-forwards in country football league history, the 46-year-old finalised his one-year agreement with the club on Monday after mutually agreeing, recently, to end five years at the helm of VFL club Frankston.
The former Mornington champion, who kicked 1623 goals in 248 games for the Bulldogs and won four premierships as coach, replaces Scott Sutherland, who was sacked by the club last week after it bowed to pressure from within its playing group.
Sutherland lasted just one season after the controversial departure of 2013 coach Doug Koop, both moved on after leading the Eagles to losing grand finals.
Goosey’s head was still spinning as he spoke to the Gazette on Monday after meeting with Cranbourne president Shane Baker and vice-president Luke King.
“This has all only happened in the last week or two,” Goosey, who 13 times kicked 100 goals in a season, said.
“I went for a couple of assistant-coaching jobs in the AFL, which didn’t eventuate, so I was really planning on a year off. It was getting a bit late in the piece to be looking for a coaching job, but these are the circumstances that happened. I’m really excited about the job and can’t wait to take training this week and move forward from there.”
Goosey said he was aware of, but not all over the Eagles situation over the last two years and was just looking forward to the challenge.
“Cranbourne is a club with a history that is rich in success and Shane (Baker) and Luke (King) have impressed me with the direction they are taking the club in,” he said.
“It’s a well-run club with a playing group that wants to improve and is really hungry for success and that is what basically got me over the line.
“I can’t pass judgement on what’s happened in the past, but all I know is that I need to give my players direction, so they know what is expected at all times. I don’t know a lot about the league and not a lot about our players as yet, this is still fresh, but it does mean I have no preconceived ideas and we can all start from scratch.”
The new Eagles’ mentor said he had spoken to the leadership group of Curtis Barker, Marc Holt and Matt Rus, and they were all made clear of what was required.
“I’ve met with the leadership group and they understand that the players need to take ownership and have a team first mentality. We’ll work hard, we’ll worry about the process and not the result and every training session will be done for a reason. There’s no reason why we can’t bring a VFL standard program to the place.”
In his time at Frankston, Goosey was a healthy promoter of his players, with Michael Hibberd and Mark Baguley (Essendon), Sam Lloyd (Richmond) and recent rookie draftee, Nick Newman (Sydney) among those that have progressed to a higher level. Goosey said he himself had not given up on the dream of coaching at a higher level.
“The club knows that, but I believe you should always be aspiring for a higher level,” he said.
“Whether it be your players, your coaching staff, there’s nothing wrong with having high aspirations and I’ll be promoting the kids, developing the coaching staff and if that leads to bigger things then that’s fantastic.”
Goosey said he was also looking forward to working with gun full-forward Marc Holt who, with more than 800 goals to his name, is closing in slowly on his new mentor’s record.
“If he kicks too many, we’ll have to throw him down back,” Goosey joked.
“We’re a bit of a different breed us full forwards, so I look forward to working with him and making sure he’s a great target for us up forward.”
Baker said the club was delighted to have Goosey on board.
“This is a great signing for our club. Simon’s experience and knowledge of the game, along with his undeniable ability to be able to pass that knowledge on and improve our playing group across the whole club, will be invaluable, and we certainly look forward to the positive impact he will make on our players,” Baker said.
“We are thrilled that Simon has agreed to join us and we can now focus on looking forward to 2015.”
