AUSTRALIAN RULES
Despite bitten, swimming along
Getting promoted is never easy. So imagine when you exceed expectations? As Doncaster Sharks Head Coach Andrew Tranquilli tells Andrew Bishara, the lessons learnt this year will help in 2015…
After winning the Eastern Football League Division Three Premiership in 2013, adjusting to life in Division Two was never going to be easy.
But the Doncaster Sharks Seniors adjusted swimmingly.
“There’s an obvious jump from Division Three to Division Two,” says Head Coach Andrew Tranquilli.
“There’s probably a good 20% gap there, so it’s an attitude adjustment too, not just
feeling it’s going to be easy because
you won the premiership the year before.
“Definitely a change that we had to work over the summer.”
It was a change that the Sharks took time to get to grips with, but it ultimately paid off. Ten wins from sixteen games saw them finish third during the home and away season, securing themselves a finals berth.
Yet, Tranquilli was “disappointed” that such a season of promise ended with a 72 point loss in the semi finals against Mulgrave.
“It was a difficult ending to the season, considering the way we went out."
“Those last few games we had to fight to get into the finals and that wasn’t the way we wanted to do it.”
However, ultimately the former Collingwood player labelled the year “a successful” one, believing that the team’s unity was crucial.
“We’ve got a good group of guys. We don’t have anyone who feels..."
Copyright 2014 Academy League. www.academyleague.com.au - Page 8
Support the fight to cure
Cardiac Arrhythmias
DONATE HERE