As Guildenstern said “old ways are the best ways”.
Maffra Football-Netball Club is running with the same football coaches from 2022.
Anthony Robbins will enter his second year in the top job, with Matt Davis his lieutenant in the reserves, along with Kal Killoran and Adrian Burgiel coaching the thirds and fourths respectively.
The quartet have been involved with Maffra FNC for many years, and have had their fingerprints over all sorts of silverware as players, coaches and administrators.
Burgiel took the young Eagles to the premiership last season, defeating Warragul by 30 points.
Defender Ashton Wright took a number of telling marks in that game, and looks a player for the future.
Burgiel’s nephew Coby Burgiel was recently drafted to West Coast, continuing in the footsteps that saw Adrian’s brother Hayden make Hawthorn’s list, as well as Adrian himself, who spent a season at Richmond.
Maffra senior premiership player Killoran (pronounced Kill-ore-an, not Kill-er-en as this writer once thought), will also be aiming to get the thirds back to the Grand Final stage.
The Eagles’ thirds fell short last season, but were taken on an unforgettable journey to make the Grand Final nonetheless: A missed shot after the siren in the second-semi meant they had to play in the preliminary final, which they won by a point.
The Grand Final became a case of perspective, as their opponents, Warragul, were able to field all their Gippsland Power players, while Maffra was unable to play Jonti Schuback and Coby Burgiel who were on duty with Vic Country.
Davis has the job often described as the ‘hardest at a footy club’, coaching the reserves.
Fortunately for Davis, life in the lunchtime league is usually positive at the Eagles thanks to the loyalty of local players.
That loyalty has seen players who would walk into senior teams in minor leagues knock back offers (presumably with money dangled) from neighbouring clubs.
The result has meant depth has rarely been an issue at the Eagles, while young players in the reserves are given every opportunity to develop at the right pace, working alongside experienced senior players often in the twilight of their career.
At last count, in one match last season there was 22 senior premierships spread across one Maffra reserves team.
What has taken me 10 years to realise, Maffra has been doing for more than two decades – you essentially need two senior teams to be successful at Gippsland League level.
The Eagles reached the preliminary final last season in the reserves, a result which has almost become the minimum such is the Eagles’ dominance at the level.
Robbins is preparing to go again as senior coach.
Maffra hasn’t got too carried away bringing in high-profile recruits, just adding a couple of players with VFL experience in Brayden Monk and Chance Doultree, as well as Nathan Pollard, who you would describe as ‘a good country footballer’.
They will be without goal-sneak Mitch Bennett, who has joined Heyfield, but ruckman Kieran Jones has been enticed back from the mud and slush of Boolarra.
Maffra suffered an almost unheard of finals miss last season, failing to qualify for the first time this millennium.
Motivation therefore shouldn’t be lacking heading into the new campaign.
Robbins himself may feel he doesn’t need to change too much; Maffra only missed out by a game and still had a percentage of 105.
Those that know football know percentage tells everything about how strong a side is, and Maffra beat the team directly below it by 120 points last season.
As players prepare to get back into preseason, if playing under a Maffra coach previously is anything to go by, training will consist of hours upon hours of fast hands (aka train tracks).
In the words of the returning fourths coach: “Get em flickin’ lads”.
