REPLACED at Castlemaine last year… premiership coach at Sandhurst this year?
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That’s one of the stories that will emerge from Bendigo Football League grand final day this Saturday if Sandhurst coach Brett Fitzpatrick can lead his Dragons to victory over Strathfieldsaye at the QEO.
They say when one door closes another one opens and that perfectly epitomises Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick last year took over the coaching reins at Castlemaine after Rod Keogh had been sacked just two rounds in.
After Castlemaine won only three games the previous three years, the Magpies won three in Fitzpatrick’s 14 games – one against grand finalist Strathfieldsaye - and lost two others by one point.
Having told Castlemaine during the season to go out and seek a new coach for 2014 because of his work commitments, Fitzpatrick later had a change of heart and put his hand up to lead the club again.
But the Magpies turned to the man who led them to their last flag in 2000, Shane Robertson, to return to take over as coach.
Fitzpatrick wasn’t without a job for long though.
Less than three weeks after the Magpies announced Robertson was returning, Fitzpatrick landed the vacant gig at Sandhurst after Shane Meade had stood down.
The Fitzpatrick selection bucked the trend of the Dragons, with the club having a tendency to go in-house when appointing coaches.
In the case of the three previous coaches, Meade (2013) got the gig on the back of coaching the club’s under-18s; Tony Graham (2011-12) had already had a previous four-year stint as Sandhurst coach; while Kieran Nihill (2008-10) is a Dragons’ veteran who first played in the club’s seniors in 1997.
With Fitzpatrick, the club went with an outsider who could not only bring a fresh approach to the Sandhurst way, but also the experience of having coached against the Dragons last year – albeit only twice – and being able to come in with some knowledge as a former opposition coach of what he perceived as strengths to build on and weaknesses to improve on.
Under Fitzpatrick, the Dragons recorded their most home and away wins since 1993 with 16 and have finally shrugged off a decade of September struggles to get through to their first grand final since 2004.
The Dragons have won two of their three finals this year, including a five-point thriller against Gisborne in the preliminary final last Saturday thanks to a last-minute Mitch Dole goal.
As good as the Dragons had been during the home and away season - which included being the only team to beat Strathfieldsaye in round three - there was always that question mark of how would the Dragons stand up in the cauldron of September?
Before this year the Dragons had won just two of their previous 10 finals since the 2004 flag and hadn’t been able to get beyond the second week, with straight-sets exits in 2007 and 2012 among the disappointments.
But the Dragons stood up under the heat last week and are now in their first grand final for a decade and a chance to add to their BFL record of 27 flags against the league's youngest club, the Storm, chasing its first premiership.
With the gap between the Storm and the rest of the competition seemingly growing wider as the year has worn on, and now two of the Dragons stars in dual Michelsen medallist Tim Martin (ankle) and Nick Stagg (shoulder) both likely to be spending Saturday on the sidelines, combined with the toll of a taxing fight-to-the-death preliminary final last week, the odds are firmly stacked against Sandhurst.
But whatever happens this Saturday, to put the disappointment of being overlooked by Castlemaine to continue as coach to 12 months on leading the Dragons into the grand final in his first year at the club has been a fine effort by Fitzpatrick.