East Sunbury has appointed former Diggers Rest assistant coach Glenn Hopkins as its head coach for the rest of the 2018 season.
Hopkins joins the Essendon District Football league division 2 club after Steve Grey quit as senior coach on June 12, and Thunder president Keith Osborne said he was the standout candidate to fill the vacancy.
“We couldn’t be more happy to have Glenn on board for the rest of the season,” Osborne said.
“Obviously he’s got great coaching experience, and I guess the great rapport he has within the community of the Sunbury and Diggers Rest area really set him apart.
“I hope he can continue to work with our young group of guys and keep on developing them and build on the platform that Steve laid. It gives us a real opportunity to present a different plan of attack going into the second half of the season and a bit of unpredictability which might work in our favour.”
East Sunbury was on top of the ladder when Grey quit, but have since lost three games to slip down the table as they chase their first senior finals’ berth.
Hopkins will take control for his first game this weekend and said he was excited about what the rest of the season holds after filling a development role at Diggers Rest.
“It’s a young club, and a developing club with lots of juniors so that really appealed to me,” he said.
“I think what we’re after is about getting the club to refocus on what their goals are, especially after losing a few on the trot.
“I think we need to get the club reignited with where they want to go and that starts next week.
“There won’t be any major changes, and I’ve got to quickly learn about the club and the players, but I’m confident the club has got the talent there to improve and certainly players don’t lose their ability to play football so we’ve just got to get them going again.”
East Sunbury will return from the bye this week against Coburg Districts.
Ewen McRae
