LW: Shane, are you the captain of a sinking ship?

SS: “Certainly not. Turning up to the club last year we had lost 12 of our top 16 in the best and fairest and 20 who had played in the seniors. At the start of November we had 13-listed players and five fill-ins.

“November was our really tough period and we’ve worked really hard to even get to this point.”

What’s the sense of feeling inside the four walls at the club?

“It’s really good considering the results and scarring of players having had a lot of big losses in recent seasons.

“I’ve spoken to 10 of our players about next year, who are all really keen to keep playing and are enjoying their footy and development.

“You can see the resilience of the group, but obviously the last quarter last Saturday (Golden Square kicked 17 goals) has really hurt them and I feel for the players and the club that a lot of the work we are doing is going to get construed that we’re not heading in the right direction.

“But most of our trigger points as a club are based around environment, culture, standards… a whole range of things that aren’t related to the scoreline.”

You were quoted after last week’s 207-point loss to Golden Square – the 29^th defeat in a row –  that you believe the club is heading in the right direction. Can you elaborate?

“Every decision we’ve made has been for the betterment of the long term.

“We haven’t played a kid in a key position for too long because we don’t want it to take a toll on him or doubled him up every game of the year because we don’t want it to affect his welfare.

“We’re playing a six-foot-ruckman (Jac Matthews) with a mature body who we know is going to struggle to win a tap-out for us, but we feel it’s the best thing for us long-term.

“Clearly there’s times where we don’t touch the ball out of the centre, but I’m prepared to wear that and make the call to preserve our young kids.

“They are some of the things that people don’t see, and we’re not picking our best team on paper.

“We’ve picked some players this year who are really struggling players, but they did all the work during the pre-season, so we’re going to pick them because we’ve got to build our standards that way.”

How far do you feel standards may have slipped in recent years?

“As a club we’ve really tried to take ownership and it could be a whole range of things. It could be a product of off-field, on-field, our junior structure over the years, but we’ve got to wear that.

“From my point of view we get a chance to establish where we want to go and get some clear direction.

“But I’m very respectful of the people who have been at the club before me and I don’t think anyone doesn’t try to do their best.”

What do you hope to get out of these next nine games to take into next year?

“We are developing players through analysis, video footage, building their training standards and different aspects of their game.

“We are not going to get it all synchronised, because a few guys will have a good game, a few will have a bad game.

“But our boys have produced good passages of play. We were three goals to one up 15 minutes into the first quarter last Saturday.

“So all the planning we did, the boys showed they can carry it out, we just can’t sustain it.

“What happens is past demons of a run of 29 losses in a row I’m sure come into the minds of players when a goal goes against them.

“Culturally, that’s one of our biggest challenges, but everything else in the background is moving along well.”

Do you have your players turning up on a Saturday believing they can win, or just hoping they won’t be on the end of another belting?

“We’ve genuinely before every game had a belief that we can at least be extremely competitive or win the game.

“That’s a great testament to the boys and I don’t expect that to change.”

You’ve mentioned 10 players from this year’s list you’ve spoken to have indicated they are keen to play on next year. As far as recruiting goes for 2017, do you expect to start with trying to get back some of the many players who have left the club in recent years?

“Absolutely, we really need to value our past junior players at the club because they provide the core and the history and the spiritual alignment.

“From a strategic point of view we didn’t target anyone from Ballarat this year because there’s the travel component, but in years two and three we want to start to move into that area and have some sustainability.

“We don’t want players coming for a couple of years and then in years three and four having to regenerate a new set of players.”

There’s now a stigma attached to Maryborough given the club’s poor on-field performance. What impact do you feel that will have on recruiting going into next year?

“To even get to the point where we picked up 20 players this year, it’s about being honest, up front and those guys believing in what we’re trying to do.

“From a personal point of view, I never tried to hide the situation and it’s a credit to the guys who came on board given they were told exactly where it’s at.

“We’ve got an extremely good group of young players who are well connected, great mates and have good futures at the footy club and that absolutely is a strength of ours going forward.”

There’s obviously a myriad of issues the club is battling at the moment, but what would you say is the No.1 hurdle holding Maryborough back?

“There’s no doubt there has been perception and reputation issues around the club.

“Certainly our connection to the community and surrounding clubs needs to improve.

“I’m very clear that we are not competing with our district clubs and it’s not us against them.

“The district clubs compete against themselves for positional place on the ladder, I believe we need to work with our surrounding district clubs.

“If that means we can provide additional resources to help their footy, that’s fine, but this mentality of us not being an important part of the area going forward is not the way we look at it.”

What’s the vision going forward that can see the club again become competitive in the Bendigo league and how long do you believe it will take to turn around?

“I’m committed for three to four years now, and every decision has been made around that.

“What we will be doing is starting the recruiting process, but what we need to do is if our environment is a place where people want to stay and also come to, that will ultimately be what keeps us going forward.

“At the moment players are enjoying their footy and developing, so we need to continue to build that, build our professionalism and I’d suspect people will want to get on board.

“I’m really confident about our future over the next couple of years and beyond.

“No-one is deviating off the course we have to take. If we do all the right things, we’ll get through and I’m excited by that.”

Does the club feel it’s receiving enough support from AFL Central Victoria, or ultimately, is it up to the club to be able to stand on its own two feet?

“I think it’s up to the club. If we get breastfed by the league it doesn’t hold as much substance as the club being responsible for its own backyard and we don’t want to have to lean on anyone.

“But Rick (Coburn, AFLCV development manager) has been great and there has been a lot of conversation and discussion from the pre-season through to now.”

You previously coached Waubra to two flags, but I understand the club was coming from a fair way back when you took over. Are the lessons you learned from that experience applicable to the situation you currently find yourself in?

“Waubra hadn’t played finals for 23 years when I came, and many of the philosophies here are the same.

“We focused on getting in good people, building up the standards, and once you get in good people and a good culture things tend to evolve.”