By Marcus Uhe
Clint Evans has been reappointed by Berwick as senior coach for the 2024 season, quashing any rumors of his departure at the club.
The playing group were informed of the decision at training on Thursday night ahead of its round 17 clash with Doncaster East.
With Evans’ blessing and the club’s future at the forefront of his mind, the committee decided to explore the coaching market to look for possible suitors to replace Evans in the coaching role in 2024.
After conversations with a number of prospects and strong support for Evans from the playing group, it was decided that the best candidate for the job was the man currently at the helm, according to interim president Glenn Gambetta.
“We did a review at the time and we maybe underestimated the importance of the players’ opinion early on,” Gambetta said.
“Everyone looks at their coaches every year and does a bit of a review, but ‘Boof’ was one that’d been there for three or four years and said ‘if you find someone you think can do better and take us to the next level, I’ll stand aside.’
“The silly thing is, he’d definitely still come up to the club and have a beer, that’s just who he is. He loves the players and loves the club.
“He’s a super communicator; you split coaches into highly technical coaches and then you’ve got coaches whose strength is their communication with players. He’s as good as I’ve seen in relation to that.”
The club took on-field results in 2023 into consideration, having cleared a wins benchmark it outlined at the start of the season and being one of the better-performed defences in the Eastern Football Netball League’s premier division.
Evans, currently in his third season at the helm, said it was “fantastic” to be re-appointed, and is excited for the club’s future.
“The year, realistically, has been pretty good, besides the weekend,” he said, in reference to the 105-point loss to East Ringwood in round 16.
“We’ve had more wins than last year, before the weekend we were second or third for points against.
“We started to get a bit of continuity mid-year with our forward line and we’re getting games into the young kids as well. All-in-all we’re on the right path, and we’ve got a bit of stability as well which has been good.”
A disappointing loss to bottom-placed Doncaster in round three threatened to derail the campaign but the club has won enough games to avoid relegation and stay in premier division for the 2024 season.
From a 2-8 win-loss record after 10 weeks the Wickers won its next four games’ culminating in one of the biggest wins since making the move to the EFNL in 2021 when they got the better of Noble Park at Pat Wright Senior Oval.
“We’ve beaten the side that’s on top (Vermont), Noble Park, and lost another two games by under a goal,” Evans said.
“We’ve been competitive with what we’ve got and we get a heap of games into these kids, which is fantastic, and the leadership group have been showing the way.
“The people around the club and the players, everyone’s on board with where we’re going, and that’s the biggest thing, and the reason why I wanted to keep going.”
Berwick face Doncaster East at home and Park Orchards away in its remaining two games of the season.
