The long-term goal is for Castlemaine to establish itself as a destination club for footballers and netballers in the area that will allow it to avoid the issues it had with player numbers where it was unable to field a full quota of teams in the BFNL this year.

Driving the club off field is president Michael Blake, who is passionate about reinvigorating the Magpies, which he believes starts with getting a strong off-field structure in place.

Blake took over the presidency of the Magpies after Jock Clark’s short stint ended early in the 2018 season.

“Obviously our win-loss record in 2018 didn’t look great, but in a lot of other aspects we were able to take out a lot of positives,” Blake said on Wednesday.

“At the start of last season we didn’t have a committee in place and it was looking like we weren’t going to have one, but we were able to get one together and pull in a lot of good people.

“One of those was Jock and I really respected the work he put in. He wanted to get going in big steps, but we needed a few baby steps first, but there’s no doubt some of the direction we’re now going is where he wanted to take us before he moved on.

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“This club has grown exponentially over the past nine years, particularly with our juniors. We’ve now got 200-odd junior members, women’s senior and junior teams, netball is growing and we have a masters team, so it’s a big organisation. 

“We’ve probably administered it in the past out of need, rather than getting the right sort of commercial aspects and that’s some of the things we’re now focused on.

“Whether it’s a football-netball club or business, I’m all about getting in good people and building around that and we feel we’ve been able to do that.

“One of those is Dave Harris, who has a great passion for developing social, sporting and employment pathways for the youth of the club and brings diverse knowledge and expertise to the committee in strategy, governance and finance.

“We’ve got Brett Fitzpatrick in an advisory role and he has been great, Matt Scully, who has retired as the national manager of Peter’s Ice-cream, has an active role with our footy operations and we have further discussions currently happening, so that commercial aspect is certainly a lot stronger.”

While Blake is content with how the off-field is coming together, on-field the club endured a 2018 of poor results, winning just five of 104 games across its two football four netball sides.

The senior football team finished last with a 1-17 record and percentage of just 23.9, culminating in a goal-less round 18 performance against Sandhurst, but Blake says the Magpies are expecting a strong retention rate.

The Magpies have made a change to their coaching structure, with Derrick Filo to continue in the role for a third season, but as joint coach with his brother, Shawn Filo.

“We knew as far as wins go it was going to be difficult last season, so we had a real focus of making it fun for the players because the old way of footy of a coach saying do it this way because that’s how I’m telling you to do it doesn’t stick anymore,” Blake said.

“You’ve got to give the modern day players the steps to succeed, but also make it a fun environment for them.

“As it sits right now I’d expect we are going to retain 95 per cent or better of our playing group. So that’s a big positive and obviously the next step now is to turn that strong environment where we have players wanting to stay into more wins.

“Last year we had to do some hard yards in terms of our recruiting, but this year a lot of the guys we picked up have been able to assist with our recruiting… they aren’t happy with the results this year and feel they owe a bit to the club.

“So that, combined with the opportunity to pump games into some young players like we did this year, we think is going to hold us in good stead going forward.”

Shawn Filo joins Derrick Filo at the Magpies having previously coached Kangaroo Flat for the past two years, with the brothers both members – along with Blake – of Castlemaine’s 1992 premiership team, which was coached by Scully.

As well as Shawn Filo joining the Magpies, the club has also secured former Bendigo Gold-listed and Kangaroo Flat midfielder Mitch Hough, who played this year with the Shepparton Swans, as a playing assistant coach.

While the club, which has signed up Don KR and FGB Natural Products as major sponsors, is determined to produce a far more competitive senior season next year, high on the priority list is the reinstating of its under-18 football team, with the two intertwining with each other.

The Magpies have an under-18 coach in place, with Brodie Martin having been appointed since July.

“Brodie has been doing a lot of work, but in reality, it starts with us needing to become a more successful senior team,” Blake said.

“You can talk about development pathways and coaching, but it’s as simple as these kids want to see something positive with the senior team and that’s why we lose so many to Golden Square, Strathfieldsaye, Kangaroo Flat, Sandhurst and the like because they want to be able to see a bit of success.

“One of the biggest issues we have is players are leaving off their own volition, so we have to make it a place they want to be and where they see they can develop and have a bit of success.

“We really want to engage more with the community and we’re working on a number of initiatives such as a partnership with the Castlemaine District Netball Association and a project with the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group we’re about to launch that will help us become that destination club we want to be.

“We’re also working with the Mount Alexander Shire and have a consultant appointed to do a master plan for a complete revamp of the Camp Reserve facility, which is big and really important for us in terms of community engagement.”

While Blake expects the Magpies’ under-18 team to be back on the field next year, getting an A Grade netball side back is proving more of a challenge, with the club currently searching for a coach to take the helm.

“If I get that really good A Grade coach we need I reckon I could walk into Bendigo and bring six or eight players back, so that’s what we’re working on,” Blake said.

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