SANDHURST Football Netball Club and senior coach Brett Fitzpatrick have parted ways.
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Fitzpatrick led the Dragons to two BFNL grand finals in his two years in charge, including a seven-point loss to Strathfieldsaye in last month’s decider.
Post-season discussions resulted in both parties deciding it was best if Fitzpatrick moved on.
“When I first went to the club I said that two years would probably see me out,’’ Fitzpatrick said.
“After the results we’ve had in two years it looks like one more year would have been a worthwhile exercise.
“We had discussions and the club are aggressive in their pursuits of that elusive flag... and to take that next step it probably needs to come from someone else. I can understand that.
“My home and work life has been suffering with the time spent coaching and my responsibility lies with home and work ahead of footy. If I had have been offered the job I would have been digging myself into a bigger hole with work and home.
“It’s best for everyone this way and there’s no hard feelings between me and the club.”
Sandhurst president Peter Watson said the club had progressed under Fitzpatrick’s guidance.
“Brett has been great for us. He’s the first coach in a decade to get us to one grand final, let alone two,’’ Watson said.
“He added a level of professionalism and outside knowledge that we hadn’t encountered for a while.
“Everyone at the club feels as though the club is better for the two years we had with Brett.”
Watson said the club was open to a playing or non-playing replacement for Fitzpatrick.
“We don’t have a replacement to rush in… we’ll follow some leads that we currently have,’’ Watson said.
Fitzpatrick said this year’s narrow grand final loss to the Storm still hurt.
“It’s still a sickening feeling because I felt as though we outplayed them for a good part of the day,’’ he said.
“We just couldn’t get inside that one-goal margin. We were running over the top of them, but didn’t take our chances.”
Fitzpatrick said the next Sandhurst coach has the foundation of a premiership side.
“The easy thing to say is they need a legitimate goal kicker,’’ Fitzpatrick said.
“The thing is they don’t necessarily need someone who can kick 80-goals plus. What they need is a forward line structure and ball movement that can provide three or four players kicking 40 goals.”