The season is still a few weeks away but the new-look Coolangatta-Tweed Blues Australian Rules Club is already planning a big year.
The club held its first major function of the year last week at the club’s Kirra home base, attracting more than 200 players, stalwarts and potential sponsors.
The sportsmen’s afternoon was a chance to introduce new coach Neil Mackay to the group as well as raise money for training equipment.
Mackay, who steps up to the senior job after mentoring the Under 18s last year, said the afternoon was an opportunity for potential sponsors to find out where the club was heading.
Guest speakers for the afternoon were two of the more entertaining and controversial figures in Australian sport, former AFL player Peter Spida Everitt and cricket legend and former selector Merv Hughes.
“Merv and Spida had plenty of stories from their playing days, while Merv, who is a former selector, talked about the current state of Australian cricket,” Mackay said.
After impressing with premierships and finals perform-ances in the late ’90s and early ’00s, the club has been languishing towards the bottom of the Queensland State League second division competition, known as the Pineapple Hotel Cup.
However, with a new board and long-term plans to play in the Queensland first division competition, Coolangatta looks to be on the up.
The addition of Mackay to the senior ranks could be just what the revitalised Blues need.
Mackay, a teacher at Palm Beach Currumbin High School, has been coaching since his early 20s, enjoying a lot of success, particularly in the schoolboy ranks. He was the inaugural coach of the Gold Coast Stingrays Under 18 team, bringing the side through to win the title in its first year. He has also been instrumental in ensuring the success of the AFL component of the PBC Schools’ sports excellence program.
The program, which started in the late ’90 with 20–30 students and one teacher, now boasts 90 kids and six teachers and has produced five players for the AFL, including last year’s grand-finalists Sam Gilbert, for St Kilda, and Dane Deans from Collingwood. Two of the club’s former students, Mark Lock and Joel Wilkinson, will play for the Gold Coast Suns in their inaugural season this year.
Mackay said making the step up to senior ranks was not a daunting prospect.
“It’s pretty much the same,” he said about coaching grown men instead of teenagers. “The coaching philosophy I’ve got is all about habits – developing habits. Robert Walle (former Brisbane coach) once said you need to ‘do the common things uncommonly well’.”
He said the aim was to make the basics just automatic. “My job is to keep developing the recipe and making sure we are all reading from the same page.”
Mackay has big plans for the Blues, looking to steer them to a finals appearance. “Our goal is to make the finals in both the seniors and reserves,” he said.
“And when you get to the finals, well that’s a whole new season.”
The club has had a lot of interest already, with 80 players turning up to training over the past few weeks. They have also moved to address their recent lack of tall timber, bringing in brothers Sam and Mick Cairns to add some much needed height.
“We are looking for a few more talls now to give us some depth,” he said.
