CLIVE Raak admits he feels a sense of unfinished business after declaring he is keen to go again for another term as the Central Highlands Football League’s senior coach.
In his first year in the job, Raak led the Highlanders to a heartbreaking four-point defeat at the hands of Geelong and District in Saturday’s interleague encounter at Bungaree.
It was the competition’s first loss since returning to senior representative football in 2012.
As a result, the CHFL has slipped to 25th position in the AFL Victoria Community Championship standings.
This sets up a clash against the Alberton league in 2017.
Raak, a past premiership coach at Hepburn, said he is a fan of the representative concept.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Raak said.
“It turns really good footballers into excellent footballers because they learn so much.”
Raak said he and the Central Highlands players were disappointed with Saturday’s result.
“We were the better side on the day, we just couldn’t find the goals,” he said.
“They were fantastic. They were really good. A great bunch of blokes to coach.”
Raak has a strong history with the Central Highlands interleague program, having served on the coaching panel in 2013 and 2014 before taking over from Greg Middleton at the helm this year.
CHFL president Eddy Comelli said the board had not yet met to discuss the situation, but personally backed Raak to continue in the role.
“I’d certainly support him going on again,” Comelli said.
Meanwhile, the Ballarat league can start preparing for another showdown with rivals Bendigo following the release of the official rankings for 2017.
The Ballarat boys dropped to ninth following the three-point defeat against Western Region on Saturday, while Bendigo is 10th after its success against Gippsland.
Shaun O’Loughlin led the BFL for the first time this year and indicated on the weekend he would like another crack at the job.
The BFL was convincing winners over Bendigo when the two competitions last met at the Eastern Oval in 2015.
