COHUNA’S Jack Geary will lead the Kangas into battle again next season, with the club confirming Geary’s re-signing for 2025.
It will be Geary’s second year in charge of Cohuna, having arrived from Bendigo Football League club Golden Square at the end of last season.
“It was an easy decision to re-sign with the club,” Geary told The Guardian following the Kangas’ 63-point win over Koondrook-Barham at the weekend.
“The club decided they were happy for me to go around again and I’ve loved my time here so far, so it was a pretty easy decision in the end.
“My family loves heading up here every Saturday and they were happy for me to do it again, and I was more than happy to put my hand up and continue.
“Now that I’ve re-signed, hopefully that will encourage a few of the boys to recommit.
“They know the direction we’re heading in now, so we’ll get on with trying to retain most of our list over the next week or so before we start worrying about what we need to add to take the next step if we’re not good enough this year.”
Cohuna currently sit seventh on the Central Murray ladder and remain an outside chance of playing finals with a five-win, six-loss record.
Although it was a slow start to the season for the Kangas, losing four of the first five matches, they have since won their past three games, including an 11-point win over last year’s grand finalists Balranald in round 11, to revive their season.
“I felt like the first five or six rounds we were battling a little bit, it was a new voice with a new style and new expectations and it took until about round 8 or 9 to get going,” Geary said.
“Now it’s starting to click for us and I feel like we’re trending in the right direction.
“The results decide whether you’re going well or not and the last few weeks we’ve gone all right.
“The next three weeks will be massive for us with Tyntynder, the Mallee Eagles and Tooleybuc-Manangatang, and we look at all three games as being winnable.
“We lost to them all in the first half of the season, so the next few games will give us a bit of a gauge as to how far we’ve come.
“A month ago we thought finals were out of the equation, but now that we’ve won three in a row and if we win this week, we’ll get back to six and six (win-loss) and anything can happen from there.”
The club confirmed the news on its social media platforms and acknowledged Geary’s impact on the club throughout his short tenure.
“Jack has brought an incredible wealth of knowledge and a winning spirit in which we all love as a club and community,” the club statement said.
“His connection with his players and also the members and supporters has been fantastic and we are very much look forward to continuing this.
“On field, Jack is an absolute work horse who lifts those around him with his game and leadership.
“We can already see the improvement in the group building in the back half of this season and we are excited to see where the rest of this season can take us and also into 2025.”
