AFTER laying the foundations to a successful new era over the last four years at South Bendigo, coach Jannelle Hobbs says she is eager to finish what she has started.
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The two-time BFNL premiership coach has re-signed for the 2022 season and has set her sights firmly on lifting the Bloods into the competition's top three.
Disregarding a fully-cancelled season in 2020, a third-straight year of improvement for the Bloods under Hobbs in 2021 ended with a fourth-place finish and a 6-4 win-loss record.
Echoing the sentiments expressed on the weekend by the Bloods' reappointed senior football coach Nathan Horbury, Hobbs said there was 'unfinished business' for her at South Bendigo.
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She said that was particularly the case after no play was possible in 2020 due to COVID-19 and the 2021 season ended unsatisfactorily in the absence of a finals series.
"It's been really disappointing not getting full seasons in, so I'm going around again and am already looking forward to it," she said.
"I've been here four years now and two of those have been COVID years. In some ways it feels like I haven't really had a good go at it.
"We made finals the second year (2019) for the first time in 19 years and this year we got a little bit of development into the players, which was a real positive, but to not have finals was really disappointing.
"Hopefully we can get that full year in next year. With people getting vaccinated, we should be better placed."
While we will never know how the finals series might have panned out for South Bendigo, Hobbs was at least confident of the Bloods making their way past the elimination final after being beaten in the corresponding match in 2019.
"We were playing quite well towards the end of the season, so who knows what might have happened," she said.
"The only thing is we wouldn't have had (goal shooter) Chloe Langley, who is in Melbourne, so that would have been a big loss.
"We'll keep on building with the team we've got and we have a few recruits on the go, which we'll reveal in time.
"There's a couple of areas that we've pinpointed for improvement and I'm confident we can achieve that improvement."
The biggest challenge for Hobbs and her side remains making some inroads into the dominance of 2017, '18 and '19 season premiers Sandhurst and fellow powerhouses Kangaroo Flat, which topped the ladder this season, and Gisborne.
South Bendigo has failed to register a win against all three teams in Hobbs' time at Harry Trott Oval.
Ironically, the Bloods' last win against any of those teams came in round nine of the 2017 season against Kangaroo Flat, when Hobbs was still coach of the Roos.
"Top-three is definitely our aim - we were sitting in fourth, but again those three sides above us were hard to break," she said.
"That's where we will be looking for some experience to bring into the club to match it with those sides.
"It's a tough gig at the moment, the BFNL. There are some very tough teams. We're on the cusp, but we have to keep developing."
The undoubted positive for the Bloods and Hobbs in 2021 was the opportunities given to the club's emerging young talent.
"We're a very young team, so to get some development in this year was a real plus. The improvement in some of our players over the course of the year was fantastic," she said.
"Young Abbey Grindal and Morgan McClellan really came on. We had Mia Peters step up to A-grade and Ella Flavell up from the under-17s play an A-grade game.
"It was great getting some game time into the younger girls. That will put us in good stead for the years to come."
The advancement of youth is set to continue next season with promising juniors Flavell, Jeanette Ross, Georgia Warne and Georgia Kinder all set to step up into senior ranks.
In other South Bendigo coaching appointments, A-grade assistant Liz Taylor will coach A-reserve, Hobbs and Vanessa Saunders will share the B-grade duties, Mel Oldfield and Saunders will take charge of B-reserve, and Saunders and A-grade captain Keiarah Brooks will take the reins of the 17-and-under team.
The Bloods will hold their first tryouts on Thursday, November 4.
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