Jake Bridges twice denied East Point its breakthrough Ballarat Football League senior premiership at the final hurdle, but now he’s on board to help get the Kangaroos that elusive flag.
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Bridges has officially joined the club as senior coach, where he will take charge of a side that finished last season in seventh position on the ladder under Glen Wilkins.
The 35-year-old has stepped down from his joint-coaching role at Buninyong – alongside Jarrod Morgan – to take on the new position.
Bridges played in senior premierships with Redan in 2006 and 2009, when the Lions beat the Kangaroos in grand finals.
He said it was a tough decision to leave the Bombers, which lost the Central Highlands league grand final to Springbank earlier this month.
“Sometimes the opportunity comes and you’ve got to make a decision with all the information that you’ve got,” Bridges, who works for well-known development company Leading Teams, said.
“The information that I had – I feel that I’ve made the right decision.
“I got a lot of great messages from the group (at Buninyong). Obviously they were disappointed and all of those things, but they could understand the opportunity and decision I made.”
Bridges said the “really young” list at East Point was what most enticed him to the job.
He said premierships weren’t the only measure of success and said one of his first aims was to maintain the club’s respected standing in the competition.
”The success comes from where you’ve got a sense of unity and sense of commitment and then that belonging that comes from it,” he said.
“There’s a lot of guys that have got a lot of loyalty there that have been there for their whole careers. And they’re still there.
“It’s about making the place conducive to giving yourself a chance to play off (for a flag).”
Bridges has family history with East Point, with his wife Kylie a former A-grade netball coach. His father also played for Golden Point, which eventually merged with East Ballarat to form the Kangaroos.
East Point president Neil Park said Bridges was a great appointment who would work well with the club’s young group of players.
“With what Glen Wilkins has set up as a base, it’s just amazing,” Park said.
“He pretty much turned our footy department around over the last three years and put us in a good position to launch pretty much our next phase, which hopefully will be a senior flag in the not too distant future.”