By Jarrod Potter
THE Berwick Miners were well aware this season would be hard, with a largely new roster and a lot of rookies, and head coach Mel Martin contends their 4-8 playing record was what he expected.
“To be brutally honest, I hoped we would end up where we did,” Martin said.
“We knew coming in to the season with the amount of rookies we had compared to experienced players, it would be very tough for us to compete with the other Division One clubs.
“I hoped we would be competitive against the division two teams and the wins came at the expense of all the division two teams gave us a good indication we were on the right track.”
On their chances of competing better in division one next year, Martin has no doubt they will be able to match up to the standard.
“After looking at our game films, our greatest difficulty and biggest defeat came against the Crusaders,” Martin said.
“The mistakes, errors and lack of technique we had then won’t be present with an extra year of pre-season training.
“There’s no reason we can’t beat any of those teams next season.”
Martin said the team had progressed significantly.
“Offensively, Rashid Malamar had a great year.
“David Handarkis had a season coming into his first year. His speed is certainly something new to the team; a man who can run 100 metres in 10.23 seconds is a rarity in our league.
“Andrew Nixon had a good year and improved significantly from the year before.
“Special mention to Matt Dawson, another rookie who played on the offensive line. He battled significant illness right before the start of the season and worked his way through to play in 10 of the 12 games.
“Anton Garkunov was great defensively. He was placed in the hardest defensive position, at middle linebacker, and he took to it very well.
“Daniel Pollard and Aaron Saunders, the other two linebackers, played excellently.”
The Miners had six players in the All-Victoria team: Andrew Nixon (quarterback), Abdoul Kingkok (kicker), Chris Peau (defensive tackle), Aaron Saunders (linebacker), Nick Pontil (cornerback) and Trevor Marks (safety).
With the required talent, Martin believes the Miners will see a rise back to the top of the league.
“We have the core of a very good team,” Martin said.
“Now they know what is required to play at that level, the extra pre-season and how to prepare for it, what to do as fitness is concerned, we’ll be in a better position next year.
“I’m not going to promise them a Vic Bowl (premiership), but I will promise them they will improve their win-loss ratio. The tangible success will come.”
The Berwick Miners junior gridiron team starts their season in late September, which will add more capability for the team to generate talent.
“Having a viable, working, junior team as a feeder to the senior team and the club itself is vitally important. It introduces guys at a younger age to American football at a lesser intensity, and basically teaches them to have fun playing the game, so hopefully they become ‘lifers’ (lifelong players) in the game.”
The Berwick Miners senior team presentation on 2 September.
