By Tara Murray
New Romsey netball coach Adam Boldiston is looking forward to the challenge at the Riddell District Netball League club.
In a coup for the club, Boldiston was last week appointed the Redbacks A and B-grade coach for next season.
Boldiston has represented both Australia and Victoria as a player and has coached in the Victorian Netball League.
He has spent four of the past five years coaching the Sunbury Lions in the Ballarat Netball League.
In that time, they won a premiership, finished runners-up, and claimed the minor premiership the past two years.
Boldiston said he had wanted to continue coaching at Sunbury, but the committee had decided to head in a different direction.
He said he was bitterly disappointed with how Sunbury handled the situation, claiming the club was not up-front with him.
However, the Lions’ decision has given Boldiston the chance to explore new opportunities and he is excited by the challenge ahead of him at Romsey.
“I’ve got a good vibe from Romsey,” he said.
“It seems like a good fit and a good club.
“It’s a refreshing new challenge. I get to work with some new players and hopefully I’ll bring a few of my girls with me.
“I’ve got a renewed energy.”
Boldiston said early conversations with Romsey had been encouraging and that they had a plan in place.
He said one area they were looking to focus on was having more interaction between the netballers and footballers. “They’ve been very welcoming from the first conversation,” he said.
“We’ll look to do some pre-season together … we’ve never been able to achieve that at Sunbury.
“They’ve [Romsey] been very open and clearly laid out plans for the club to get the reconnect between netball and football. “I’m keen and eager to drive that challenge.”
Boldiston said he didn’t know much about Romsey’s list, but he was excited to get to work and see who would play on next year.
“They are always quite competitive. They won a premiership in 2017 and the B-graders won it this year.
“Hopefully they will return along with the A-graders and I’ll look to fill a few gaps.
“If we can keep bringing up some younger ones, we can have locals blended in with some experience.”
Monique Clark has been appointed the C-grade and under-19s coach.
Clark, who has been at Romsey the past two year’s, previously played under Boldiston at Sunbury.
“It’s good to be reconnecting with Mon,” Boldiston said. “She’s coaching the under-19s and C-grade as she recovers from an ACL injury.
The Redbacks will hold trials for the upcoming season on November 21 and 28.
