For recently appointed Clunes coach Luke Davidson, the role came sooner than he had envisioned, but a senior job was one he had always wanted to take up.
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Following Johno Leoncini's departure at the end of the 2021 Central Highlands Football League season, the opening was there for Davidson to make the jump.
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"Always been in my plans to go down the coaching path," he told The Courier.
"I've done it cricket-wise down here (Geelong) in the past, I've sort of helped out with the girls footy team down here at (St Joseph's) over the last four or five years, just as an assistant.
"Then obviously was an assistant coach at Clunes for the last couple of years.
"Probably got it a bit sooner than I thought but I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring, already been a part of the club, knew what the club was about, knew all the boys, so I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring and turns out I got it."
Although Clunes is fresh from its strongest season results-wise in a long time, Davidson said he was more excited by the young list at his disposal than the improvement in on-field performance.
"We're a young group, I think that was the more exciting part of it all. We've got a lot of blokes under 25, a few only just over 25, I was one of the older ones at 31 (this) year," he said.
"I think that was more so the deciding factor that it's a young group willing to want to succeed and if the results go our way, I don't see why this group can't succeed in the future.
"Yes the results were good this year, we also got to put it in perspective that we didn't play five of the top eight sides last (season) as well."
With Victoria's vaccination rate steadily climbing and a full-season seeming like a realistic reality in 2022 after two COVID-19 hampered seasons, creating an enjoyable environment is Davidson's first goal.
The toll that the stop-start nature of the 2021 season took on players and coaches was significant, motivation levels no doubt dipping as more weeks were lost to lockdowns the further the season went on.
"It's probably just trying to get everyone into an environment that they want to be a part of," he said.
"Local footy over the last couple of years, obviously we missed the (2020) season then last (season) was stop-start, I think a lot of blokes sort of started to get over it by the end of the year.
"Just trying to get that environment at training as a place where everyone wants to come to and make it enjoyable again."
On field in 2022, building off the start of this past season where Clunes scored strongly is an aim for Davidson, making the most of the youthful list he has.
"We're definitely trying to use that youthful aspect, the run-and-gun sort of style would be the way we want to harness everyone's strengths, I guess," he said.
"We showed that we do have quite a potent forward line once we get it in there, it was just that midfield depth that we lacked a bit last (season), winning the ball at the source which is something we'll focus on as well."
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