By Tara Murray
Ben Black has won a Riddell District Football Netball League football premiership, now he’s hoping to have success as Riddell’s new A-grade netball coach.
Black was earlier this month named the Bombers new A and B-grade coach, as he his looks for a new netball coaching challenge.
He had been coaching in the south-eastern suburbs, but thought the time was right to look elsewhere and the Bombers, and the competition, where he once played shaped as a good fit.
“I used to play football up there, 10 years ago,” he said.
“I played with Woodend and won a flag against Riddell. I wanted to get back into the league, I really enjoyed it up there.
“I’ve been coaching [netball] for a little while now around the traps.
“I’ve been on the lookout for coaching advertisements and kept a close eye on the competition.”
Black comes to the Bombers having coached the Heatherton Netball Club this year, where they won two premierships.
Before that he spent three years at Karingal Netball Club where he took them from the bottom of the ladder to top in all grades, winning three premierships.
He also set up Karingal’s first women’s football team and works in recruitment with the Western Bulldogs AFLW team.
Black, who is involved with Victorian Netball League side the Aerials in recruiting and coaching, will travel from Clyde to coach the Bombers.
He said he comes into Riddell with no preconceived ideas, not knowing any of the players. He replaces Lauren Close as coach, with Close taking on the director of netball role.
The Bombers finished the season in sixth, losing in the first week of finals.
Black said the side had a good base to build on and that if they can keep all the players on the court.
He said he knows they also have some young talent coming through and was excited to work with them.
“Trials are coming up and it’s really exciting to see what young talent they have down there.
“I want to continue to develop that talent and mixing it in with some experience.
“Hopefully we can fast track their development.
“We’ll trial and hopefully we’ll have a good list and we can get some results on the board.
“I can’t wait to see what I have. It should be an exciting year.”
The Bombers are having netball trials on November 28 and December 5. To register, netballbombers@gmail.com
