Bombers on the lookout for senior mentorTHE Tiwi Bombers board will tomorrow night meet to appoint a sub-committee that will consider several candidates for the club's third coach in as many years, including three islanders and a South Australian.
Brenton Toy, the Bombers coach in the 2008/09 season, has taken up the top job at rival Northern Territory Football League club St Mary's. Toy has cited travel and too much time away from his young family in Darwin as reasons for his departure. The role as Bombers coach required Toy to fly to the islands up to three times a week islands in preparation for the weekend's matches.
The Bombers' board will also explore avenues to increase its sponsorship base. Board member Brian Clancy today said that that was one of several items on the agenda at tomorrow night's annual general meeting.
"One of the things we'll be discussing is setting up what's effectively a sub-committee which will go through the applicants for the senior coaching position we have received at the moment," Clancy said. "Three of the applicants are islanders and one has coached in the South Australian league."
The decision on the coach Clancy said will be made after interviews begin in late August. The NTFL's 2009/10 season begins in October. Clancy said Toy did a fantastic job as coach of the Bombers.
"We love him but when we play the Saints we'll 'hate' him; it's the rules of engagement," Clancy said with a laugh. "One of the problems for Brenton (as coach of the islands-based Bombers) was that he has a young family based in Darwin and with all the travel to and from the islands it made life difficult. He was fantastic for us; it was a shame to see him go but it makes a lot of sense for him, and he's a former St Mary's man, too."
Clancy said other issues to be discussed at the AGM will be working on ways to shore up long-term sponsorship and on-field strategies to keep team playing finals football.
"When we started out (three years ago), we locked in sponsorships for three years and we're coming to the end of that so we're looking ahead," he said. "Our strategy (as a team) was always to play in the grand final in our first five years. We're probably ahead of that plan. We've finished either second or third in the home-and-away season and have had the double chance but got rolled largely due to (our lack of) fitness and being short of having key-position players, big men, in our team."
DARREN MONCRIEFF
Darren@AboriginalFootball.com.au
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Last Modified on 28/07/2009 21:11