Tobi Swinley has been named as the Craigieburn Eagles Big V division 1 women’s coach.
Swinley arrived at the club last season where he was lead assistant coach. Before his arrival at the Eagles he was part of a championship-winning team with Keillor’s division 1 men’s side, but was forced to retire not long after due to injury.
Swinley then moved into coaching where he recently assistant coached two teams to a gold and a bronze medal at a national level for Victoria University.
Now he is head of his own side, something he said is an exciting opportunity.
“It’s definitely a huge honour,” he said.
“To lead a team, and have people put trust in you for an entire season, most people probably only get under 10 seasons in their adult career, so to be able to play a role in that is a really big honour, it’s a big responsibility too.”
Last season the Eagles finished in fourth position, losing in a quarter final to Western Port by nine points. However, Swinley doesn’t yet know exactly how many players from last season are staying at the club.
“I’d like to have a little bit more security in that regard,” he said.
“But we do have Myra Wood and Ellen Cox returning which is pretty huge.
“Imports are always a bit of a challenge but we are absolutely hoping to keep Courtney [Strait],
she’s a huge part of our team and our culture.
“We do have a bit of a budget to acquire some talented bits and pieces to go along with our team from last year.
“Because we were right there [last year], every other team that was in finals we genuinely believe we could have beaten.
“It really showed that one or two extra pieces can make all the difference in the long run.”
While playing finals again is certainly the goal for the Eagles, Swinley said at this point he is thinking beyond that.
“It’s really hard to make a prediction with finals… it depends how other teams look and how other teams buy in,” he said.
“My goal is to really put some of the foundational pieces down to build a functional women’s senior program at Craigieburn.
“To have a really good system flowing from junior’s to youth to women’s, it’s been a little bit disjointed in the past, so it’s something that I’m really hoping to sink my teeth into and then genuinely develop the players I have on my team.
“Player development and personal development are really huge, and on the top of my priority list.”
Harper Sercombe
