By ADEM SARICAOGLU
DEAN Hennessy has been charged with the imposing task of replacing Ian Dobson as the Green Gully Cavaliers’ senior coach for 2013.
Dobson, one of the most successful Victorian Premier League coaches of all time, walked out on the Cavaliers to pursue other interests after their 2012 campaign.
Injuries ravaged the Cavaliers throughout last season as they chased their third successive title, and club general manager Raymond Mamo said Hennessy’s enthusiasm for the role was what won him the gig over three other hopefuls.
“It’s exciting, you can’t describe it as anything else,” Hennessy told Star.
“It’s most probably the biggest club in the VPL, along with the South Melbournes of this world, so to have the opportunity to take a job like that and hopefully continue the success the club’s experienced is a great challenge that I’m really looking forward to.”
However Mamo does admit following on from Dobson’s legacy won’t be easy.
“There’s always been a high expectation at the club with coaching, so he does have very, very big shoes to fill,” Mamo said.
“This will be a big step for Dean coaching at a club like Green Gully as well, so he’s looking forward to it and that’s how he came across when we interviewed him.”
Hennessy and Dobson have been friends since Hennessy arrived from the UK in the early 1980s, and the new Green Gully coach told Star he approached Dobson before applying for the job.
“When he resigned I rang him just to see what he thought about whether I should throw my hat in the ring to see where I was at with my coaching career and he gave me great support and advised I should go for it,” Hennessy said.
“I always like to do the right thing and with Dobbo’s record, which is second to none, I just thought it was pertinent that I actually spoke to him about it first.”
Hennessy embraces the challenge of taking over a club of such calibre as Green Gully, and has already brought with him his strength and conditioning coach from the Southern Stars to address the club’s recent injury crisis.
“We’re going to do a lot screening in the first week with our physio groups and we’re really going to try and understand what the injuries were, whether they were just unfortunate with a challenge or something fundamental about what we did in preseason last year,” he said
“Hopefully we can learn from that and implement new systems so we can get the boys really fit but more so to make sure they’re able to do it week in week out.”
Prior to Hennessy’s arrival the club made a raft of changes to the squad.
Six players have moved on, including injury-troubled star Graham Hockless, but Green Gully can boast the arrivals of three key personnel: Griffin McMaster, Tom Cahill and Scott Muirhead.
