Instead, after two challenging years, with limited matches and social events, Rory Nicol wants his players to enjoy being back on the field and kicking a footy again.
“I feel not a heap needs to change to be honest. I just need to grab the baton that [former coach] Steve Clark was carrying and run with it,” he said.
“Obviously I’ll implement some different things because I have a different style, but I’ll just be looking to compliment Steve’s hard work and look to develop the exciting list, which I’m looking forward to.
Clark stood down at the end of last season after four years in the role.
“I’m not going to have big expectations. We’ll just try to be the best we can be and see how far that takes us.”
As coach for four years up until 2020, Nicol is credited with turning around the fortunes of rival BFL club Newcomb and ridding it of its ‘easy beats’ tag. He has also coached at VFL and GFL levels.
Nicol has signed on for two seasons, becoming the 135 year old club’s 35th senior coach.
He said was not necessarily looking to take on a new coaching role, but Queenscliff’s culture and its talented list of youth proved too tempting.
“I was really impressed with how the club’s travelling off field, they’re very organised and have a strong volunteer base. I just found it was a very welcoming, warm community football club.
“The flip side to that is what Steve’s been able to do over the last couple of years to put some game time into the younger guys, the 17, 18 and 19 year olds. They’re at a point we’re they’re probably ready to develop further and play some more regular senior football. There’s a lot of improvement in the list,” he said.
“If you use Ocean Grove as an example, they’ve gone through a youth policy and everybody probably tipped them to finish in the bottom two or three and they just came out and surprised everyone and won a final.
“We’re going to be young, so who knows what we can achieve.”
Queenscliff Football Netball Club president Rowan Martin said Nicol was appointed after an extensive recruitment process and from a field of impressive applicants.
“Of the short-listed candidates whittled down from an early list of eight potentials for the role, the final candidates presented and interviewed extremely well but Rory was deemed to be the best fit for our club,” he said.