Garry Ramsay returned to the Club in 2008 as senior coach after an absence of 2 years. Garry was excited to be back at the club that had been such a large part of his coaching career and quickly established an experienced and professional coaching setup with club legend Rob Lamb and new recruit Justin Whitcher as assistant coaches and former player Jon Manzoney as Reserves Coach.
Pre-season was once again disrupted with the ground being closed due to drought conditions and the club forced to train at St. Andrews and all pre-season games being away from home. With some of the older Panton Hill Players returning to the senior list after absences Garry was confident of a better year. However things didn’t go well with a final result of only 4 wins being blatantly inadequate. There were a number of factors in this result including injuries to key players, the weaker sides leaving the competition (such as Kinglake and Wallan) and inadequate recruiting at the start of the year.
Fifty-two players played seniors throughout the year but only two players played in every game. Twenty three players played their first senior game for Panton Hill, most of whom playing their first ever senior games.
Despite the lack of on field success the social atmosphere around the club continued to be very positive. The local enthusiasm and support for the club is a key strength and testament to the community. The club has continued to develop the junior teams, expand sponsorship, gain support from the local community and re-establish an experienced coaching structure.
With Scott Walker in his first year as President and Brad Brennan supporting in the Vice President role, the club set about securing itself financially and set the foundations to gain success. Cameron Construction and the Pantoin Hill Hotel continued as major sponsors but Valley Financial Services (under the banner of the Bendigo Bank) joined the club as a major sponsor and demonstrated their keenness to build strong links with the local community.
Following the success of the Under 10’s in 2007 the juniors continued to expand in 2008 fielding 10’s, 11’s and 12’s with more than 60 registered players. The under 10’s started the season well and were placed in a higher division after the grading rounds and only narrowly missed the finals. The under 11’s were solid and the under 12’s performed well with the player numbers supplemented by some of the younger age group players and Research players on a week to week basis under a player loan scheme enable by the league.
