NEW Maryborough coach Shane Skontra will focus on stability rather than making a recruiting splash as the Magpies strive to climb off the bottom of the Bendigo Football League ladder.
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Skontra was last week announced the new coach of Maryborough, taking over a side that lost all 18 of its games this year by an average of 112 points, with his focus for next season to bring some stability back to the Magpies.
“I don’t expect us to be nailing any big-gun recruits… it’s not about that for next year,” Skontra said on Wednesday.
“Next year will be all about trying to provide a foundation for the club and we then might be able to look a bit broader the year after that.
“My expectation is we won’t be landing anything big.”
I don’t expect us to be nailing any big-gun recruits… it’s not about that for next year
- Shane Skontra
While Skontra doesn’t expect to land any high-profile recruits, he hopes to attract some players who have left Maryborough over the past four years back to Princes Park.
“As well as that stability, it’s important we work with the other clubs in the area to get the Maryborough footy club back in a good light and really start that rebuilding process,” said Skontra, who has coached the Ballarat inter-league team the past two years and is also a dual Central Highlands premiership coach with Waubra.
“I’ve had conversations with some of those guys who have left and a lot of them have Maryborough at heart, but they just need to see some change and that’s what we’ll be hoping to achieve.
“We need to get some leg work done first… rather than talk about it, people need to see it and if we can create some positive movement, that might generate some more interest.”
Skontra is desperately keen to avoid a repeat of the situation this year where the Magpies regularly had up to seven under-18 players double up in the seniors.
The Magpies will begin pre-season training under Skontra on Monday, November 23.
