The Swan Hill Football Netball Club will next season turn to their past, in order to secure the future, with the appointment of 2008 premiership coach Cal Beasy to lead them into 2023.
Beasy is a household name, not only among the Swans faithful but the Central Murray football community. As one of the greatest players and coaches to have ever donned the maroon and white, he will bring a level of reverence to a Swan Hill side that finished eighth with a five-win, eleven loss season this year.
After speaking with The Guardian this week, the direction Beasy will take the team will be crystal clear, with a distinct emphasis on playing and developing the younger members of the club and in turn, securing the Swans future set to be the focus.
“I’m pretty excited to be honest – obviously it’s been a while between drinks for me in terms of coaching the senior side, but I’ve still got a strong passion for the club and we’ve got a good crop of juniors coming through,” Beasy said.
“It’s exciting to be back in charge and help make sure this crop of kids reaches their potential and are playing senior footy when they’re ready.”
Beasy is no stranger to the role of senior coach, having led the club for three seasons between 2007 and 2009 – including the 2008 senior premiership – and a second stint as joint coach with great mate Hugh Foott in 2015.
With the club looking to the future, Beasy was a seemingly natural fit to take on the role vacated by Matthew Wade and Darcy Ryan, having led Swan Hill’s Under 14.5’s team to the Central Murray premiership this season. While the under 14.5 players may still be a season or two away from playing senior football, there is still a good crop of Colts players for Beasy to work with from next season, with Jem Sibley, Buol Majur, Wilhem Bennett, Jude Seymour, Conner Arif and Beasy’s son Sonny – who is still eligible to play under 14.5’s – having all made their senior debuts this season.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had that natural progression from the Colts through to the seniors, where we were blooding the kids year in and year out into the senior squad,” Beasy said.
“We’re back to strong enough numbers now within our junior ranks and the kids that are playing are of good enough quality to step into the senior squad next year – and there’s a few of them as well.”
“I think it’s pretty important to get back to that culture within the club and make sure the juniors are getting every opportunity possible to keep developing and keep playing the highest standard of football that they can in order to keep developing.”
While the focus for next season will be on the future, Beasy was also optimistic that the Swans would improve on the ladder in 2023 as well – with the new coach quietly confident that brighter times might be just around the corner.
“I think the ladder position this season doesn’t really reflect the quality of the list – and I don’t the list probably reached its potential either this year,” Beasy said.
“I think there’ll be a bit of improvement within the group naturally and to add the youth in to the mix along with some seriously good senior footballers that are already there getting the full potential out of the current list is going to be an exciting challenge.”
