Cranbourne president Gerry Kelly and 2007 senior best-and-fairest winner Marc Holt welcome new coach Doug Koop to Casey Fields on Friday night.By Brad Kingsbury
CRANBOURNE is a club in need of strong leadership and the Eagles have addressed that issue head-on with the appointment of hugely experienced former VFL/VFA player and Doug Koop as its senior coach for 2008.
Koop left Springvale at the end of 1994 to coach Beaconsfield and quickly developed a reputation as a tough and uncompromising leader who demanded and regularly received the absolute best from his players – on and off the field.
If he is able to harness the raw, but at times wayward talent at Casey Fields with that winning culture, then the club’s former fiercely held reputation for success is almost certain to be swiftly restored.
However the man himself knows there is plenty of work to do before that can happen.
“From where we finished last year, there are eight sides ahead of us and the top six are very good footy teams,” he said.
“There’s a huge gap for us to make up. I think at this stage it’s more about genuine improvement, both individually and as a team.”
Koop, who played with Melbourne, North Melbourne and Sydney in the late 1980s and then had a stint with VFL club Springvale, coached Beaconsfield for three seasons making the finals in the first two years.
He then went to Port Melbourne for two years before joining Frankston YCW in the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League.
“A mate of mine, Shane Moody, was at (Frankston) YCW and I ended up there as assistant to Peter Freeman and Mark Heaysman,” he said.
“I took over as coach in 2003 and took them to the premiership. I had four really good years there and then the committee wanted to go in a different direction.”
MPNFL rival Chelsea contacted Koop and he accepted the vacant job at the bayside club, but it was an unhappy union from day one and almost caused Koop to give coaching away.
“I probably never felt comfortable there from the day I walked in and certainly don’t feel comfortable about what happened there last year, but that’s in the past,” he said.
“I had almost decided not to apply for any other jobs and thought that might be it, but Brad (Alden-Brown) rang me and painted a good picture of Cranbourne.
“I went through it pretty carefully and I talked to a few blokes. I spoke to (former Springvale star) Billy King who has come on board as my assistant again and we decided that we’d have a crack at it.”
Koop said that finals were not a specific goal at this stage, but although he had not yet assessed the entire list, there was scope for immediate improvement.
“They’ve got a young list and they’re all really keen to improve so it’s a good challenge,” he said.
“The results last year weren’t as bad as they looked. Some bad quarters and halves were obviously costly.
“In this day and age discipline, on and off field is very important, and we will be doing a few things to help that improve this year.”
