Tara Murray
The successful partnership between Keilor Football Club and Mick McGuane will continue for at least another two years.
The Essendon District Football League club announced that McGuane had signed on for a further two years, extending his tenture as coach which began in 2008.
McGuane said it was an easy decision to go around again at the club where he has coached three premier division premierships.
“It’s about the environment we have created and I want to be a part of that,” he said.
“A huge part of that is the people at the club.
“You have to get it right. We have more than 800 participants from Auskick through to senior football.
“Things are sitting comfortably in all parts of the club and we’re doing things right and still getting results.
“I think the club thought there was no reason for change if I was energetic enough to go round again.
“I was pretty happy too.”
McGuane said he was still enjoying developing the players, some who would go onto higher levels.
While McGuane’s future has been shored up, there is still plenty of unknown in regards to the remaining part of this season.
The EDFL has indicated that if lockdowns lift on September 2 as scheduled, there will be a top four finals series for all senior competitions.
The Blues’ senior side sits second behind Strathmore, on percentage. At this stage, the Blues are scheduled to face Aberfeldie in a knock-out semi final on the weekend of September 12.
Strathmore will face Maribyrnong Park in the other final.
The Blues’ reserves and thirds (both undefeated on top), under-18.5 (third) and women’s team (top) are also in the top four and looking at finals.
McGuane said all they can do is prepare themselves in case they get to return to the field.
He said while they had a pretty experienced group, the challenge facing them was different to anything they had faced before.
“We have to be ready,” he said. “Strathmore, Aberfeldie and Maribyrnong Park will be.
“It’s a waiting game and we have to sit and wait and see what happens in the next phase.
“Until we get the message, we will continue to train and keep the boys engaged.
“We’ve got dialogue over the phone through the team app, with everyone having training and running programs, which they have to do most of it by themselves.
“It makes it hard to fine tune ball skills, but we have a pretty engaged group, driven group who do the right thing most of the time.”
