Tara Murray
New Hume City coach Ersan Gulum said it was an easy decision to come back and help out the National Premier League side.
Having started his playing career at Hume before going on to the biggest stage and representing his country, Hume is part of Gulum’s DNA.
The Turkish international was recently appointed the club’s fourth coach of the year and set a massive task from the start.
“It’s my junior club and they’re in desperate need for a coach they knew could bring energy and positive vibes and positive energy into a fragile playing group,” Gulum said.
“I’ve always followed them while abroad and playing overseas and it’s been part of who I am.
“Knowing I come from a club like this, Hume City, and now where they are, it is a great honour and great thing seeing the club achieved so much being in the NPL.
“It’s humbling and I’m proud of seeing what they’ve become.”
This is Gulum’s first coaching role at this level. He said working with coaching staff overseas gave him ambitions to return home and coach.
Gulum was thrown right in the deep end. He had two games this season to help the club avoid relegation.
A come from behind 2-1 win against Dandenong Thunder in the first of those matches, was enough to seal the side’s fate in the top flight with one round remaining.
“It was very exciting and very nerve wracking as it was a very important game,” he said.
“It was a crucial three points, not just for the playing group, but the club as a whole.”
Gulum said he just wanted to try and get the confidence back in the group.
“When I first came in, one of the first things I wanted to have a proper understanding of was the mentality of the playing group and what had gone wrong in that rough patch,” he said.
“I knew what I had to work with to bring the confidence back into the playing group… We needed to bring back the confidence level.
“They are a fantastic bunch of boys and a bunch of boys that can play some good football.”
Gulum said the side’s willingness to and determination to win the match against the Thunder under that pressure was massive.
He said that was something he wanted to see going forward.
“These are some of the values I’m going to implement and have started implementing” he said.
“One of our values for the game was the willingness to not to give up and they showed that and have showed that again going into the Oakleigh Cannons game.
“We want to build a winning mentality and mind frame. When they are going out there, to get out of that defensive mindset. Being defensive and worried about losing a game, they’re going to go out there and play to win and get three points.”
Hume are set to face the Oakleigh Cannons in the final round of the season.
