Roxburgh Park will turn its attention to pre-season preparations after a couple of tough weeks off the field.
The club announced last Tuesday that Travis McCarty will coach the senior side in Essendon District Football League division 2, replacing Paul Derrick.
Magpies’ president Jason Bolitho said Derrick had decided to step down after three years at the helm.
“He’s been fantastic and had overwhelming support from the club,” he said. “He decided to step down, saying it was what was best for the club … we tried to talk him around.
“He said he wasn’t in it 100 per cent and felt he didn’t have 100 per cent passion.
“Paul’s always had the best interests of the club at heart,” Bolitho said, adding the club would always be indebted to Derrick for his role during three years as senior coach.
In that time, the Magpies senior team made two grand finals and a preliminary final.
“He brought unity and stability to the club,” Bolitho said. “He brought the club a long way.”
“He never played favourites, and that’s what we like to be about.
“Last year, we had three sides make the grand final. He didn’t coach a premiership, but he has to take some of the credit for what was achieved.”
With only six weeks until the start of the season, the club wasted no time in appointing McCarty. He was due to meet the playing group last Wednesday.
McCarty coached Kilmore in both the Riddell District and Northern football leagues. He was originally going to be an assistant coach at Thomastown this year.
Bolitho said, with the coaching situation sorted, the club wants to focus on pre-season and get ready for round one.
The club has lost at least two key players from last year’s squad.
Luke Capuano, who led the league’s division 2 goalkicking, made the move to Glenroy late last year, wanting to test his skills at the next level.
More recently, 2016 club best and fairest winner Brad Dimech has put in a clearance to go to division 1 side Westmeadows.
“Brad has been talking about moving to the higher grade the last couple of years,” Bolitho said.
“With [former coach] Paul [Derrick] moving on, he thought it was the right time. He’s gone with our blessing.”
Bolitho said the focus of bringing through players from the side’s under-19 side would remain.
“We’ve got some really good depth and talent in the under-19s,” he said.
“We don’t have two or three sides in each age group, and may not have a lot of juniors, but we’ve got a fair few really talented ones.
“We’ve always been up there, the last six to seven years,” Bolitho said.
