KAPUNDA Football Club A-grade player-coach Fraser Evans has signed on to lead the club in the 2021 season after helping the 2019 wooden-spooners jump up to fifth in the abbreviated season.
Evans said it was a long road to round one after signing on last year, but that he was proud of how his squad found its footing as the year went on, winning three consecutive games against Willaston, Tanunda and Barossa District after only registering three total wins from 16 tries in 2019.
“It was really challenging because it was such a long, drawn out process to even get to round one,” he said.
“We had 13 new blokes in the team, a new coach who had never coached before, and we came up against South Gawler to kick off the year who ended up only losing to the premiers all year.
“Once we started to gel together I thought our ability to put pressure on our opposition gave us an opportunity to be in the position to win games, so we were around the mark in most games.”
Outside of a 10-goal loss to Gawler Central, the Bombers’ worst loss was by just 25 points in that round one fixture with South Gawler.
Evans, who is just three seasons removed from a Jack Oatey Medal as best-on-ground in the SANFL grand final, said the move into coaching has been a very steep learning curve, but is grateful with the amount of support the club has provided.
“I learned pretty quickly that it’s really challenging to try and coach and play at the same time, so I had to rely on my assistants heavily,” he said.
“Most of my coaching was done during the week, but Dave and Jason handled most of the stuff on match day which was a system I thought worked well and I’m excited to see what we can achieve next year with a full pre-season some continuity.”
Elsewhere, Tanunda player-coach Dean Terlich will be taking his talents to the Adelaide Hills Football League to coach the Uraidla Districts Football Club after taking the Magpies to the 2019 BL&G premiership, before falling to a winless wooden spoon this year.