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COACHING gigs in central Victorian football don’t come any harder than the one Jon Starr has put his hand up for.
For the past decade coaches have been striving to get Inglewood up and firing again in the Loddon Valley Football League, but still, the Blues continue to dwell at the foot of the senior ladder.
Starr is the latest to have a crack at getting the Blues back on track and competitive once again in the LVFL.
The Inglewood coaching job has been somewhat of a merry-go-round in recent seasons, but hopefully, in Starr the Blues finally have some stability.
The Blues’ playing group has been unable to play with any consistent gameplan or structure over the past four years with the constant coaching changes, and that can’t be helping the club’s bid to climb the ladder.
Starr will become the Blues’ sixth senior coach since 2011, with those who have previously held the role in that time being Graeme Abbott, Stuart Balnaves, Tim Wicks and Josh Hutchinson (co-coaches) and Isaac Douthie.
In Starr the Blues have a renowned Inglewood figure who gets his first go at the senior role following seven years over three stints as the club’s under-17 coach.
It’s always good to see coaches who have honed their craft at lower levels - reserves or junior football - get an opportunity to step into the senior ranks.
Huntly has afforded the same opportunity to Jamie Hogan as well for next year following his 18-year coaching apprenticeship.
In Starr, the Blues also have a link back to the last time they were a power in the LVFNL.
While Inglewood is now widely renowned for its easybeat status - the Blues have won just 20 of 176 games since they last played finals in 2003 - there was a time back in the 1980s when the club was a force in the competition.
Between 1984 and 1987 the Blues played in four grand finals in a row.
They fell short in three of them, but they beat Bridgewater by 25 points in 1986 to win the last of what is nine senior flags.
Starr played in the 1986 premiership, and the following year when the Blues lost to YCW by 28 points in the 1987 grand final, he won the best and fairest, while he is also a life member of the club.
No-one likes to see clubs in the doldrums for as long as what Inglewood has been, and while the Blues are said to have done plenty of work off the field in recent years to get their house in order, ultimately, clubs are judged by what happens between 2pm and 5pm on a Saturday afternoon between April and September.
Most clubs will tell you it’s getting harder each year to find coaches, and that task is only made the more difficult when you’ve got the unenviable record of Inglewood of four wooden spoons in a row and seven in the past 11 years.
You’ve got a tough job ahead of you, Jon, but well done on putting your hand up and having a crack at it.
Good luck.