By JARROD POTTER
SWITCHING seats for Saturday, Dandenong Stingrays assistant coach Nick Cox took on the TAC Cup top job with gusto.
After Wayne Siekman did the same last year, the Stingrays decided to continue the practice by giving Cox his chance to set the standards for the week in the clash against Calder Cannons.
With senior gigs dotting his coaching career so far – from Bayswater, Rowville, South Belgrave and Cranbourne – it wasn’t a completely fresh experience taking on the role.
Cox’s ideals were simple and a continuation of this year’s main Stingrays strategies – if you compete hard and get in amongst it then you will stay out there.
For Cox it was just the business as usual of getting the Rays out there and making sure the standards were reached.
“It’s just something I’ve done at senior level at the local level before so it was nothing different,” Cox said.
“The reason it made it easier as nothing changed from our coaching perspective.
“We’re all on the same page as coaches and Craig’s (Black) given me a job to lead the team for the week, but nothing really changed … unfortunately the result didn’t go our way, but that’s the way it is.”
He was disappointed in the lacklustre finish from the side, but looked towards the positives – more junior Rays were thrown into big challenges and learned from them.
“We’ve got to look at positives – probably the biggest disappointment on the day was that they didn’t listen to instructions early – once a team gets a run on and gain confidence, probably for the rest of the day we were up against it.
“When we listened to instruction, kicked it where we needed to kick it and played the way we wanted to, we were able to compete with them and match them.
“It’s about development in our program and we exposed some kids at a really high level today and they’ve got to work hard to get to the standard where they can become AFL footballers and get to the next level.”
Dandenong Stingrays region manager Mark Wheeler said Cox’s ambitions to coach at higher levels inspired them to give him a shot and he delivered in spades.
“We say to everyone here that the program is about development, both of players and staff,” Wheeler said.
“Nick wants to go to the VFL and this gives him the opportunity to get up and take the reins.
“The way he talked to the boys after the game was great – I called him up about an hour afterwards and told him I really happy with the way he presented himself – he gave them a whack without going too far; well composed and did really well for all involved.
“We didn’t worry about the scoreboard – the program is bigger than that – he’s done it (senior TAC Cup coaching) and now he’s got the bug and wants to go to the next level and we want to support him with that.”
Craig Black will be back in the top chair for Dandenong’s away clash against Eastern Ranges on Saturday.
