By Oliver Lees
Lancefield has confirmed its senior coaching appointments for the 2022 season, as the club looks forward to its 150 year anniversary.
Last week the Tigers announced that Michelle Rix will continue as coach of the A-grade netball side while Tom Waters has also committed to the club as the senior men’s football coach.
Rix has had a long association with the RDNL and Lancefield, with more than 30 years involved in the league, half of those at the Tigers.
Rix said she was excited to continue building the team’s winning culture.
“I’ve raised my children in Lancefield and now they’re involved in the club which is pretty special. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Rix said.
“We’ve had a couple tough years rebuilding, time’s when we’ve struggled to get enough players in the under-14s.
“The 2019 season was a really fun year of netball that taught us a lot about our character, but it was really difficult for the club on the scoreboard.
“I was involved as a player and it was a year where I thought it was time to do something about it. Since then it’s been about building relationships and setting goals.”
The Tigers finished the 2019 season in last place, with the team unable to find a win from 16 matches.
Following the cancellation of the 2020 season due to lockdown restrictions, Rix’s side found some consistency in their play this year.
The Tigers finished the shortened 10 game season with three wins and seven losses.
“We’re ecstatic with our A-grade side this season,” Rix said. We knew we weren’t going to have a grade till round 5 and 6 with injuries etc.
“We knew we weren’t going to have our full side until about round five or six due to players being unavailable, but we showed a lot of improvement.”
Rix said the Tigers’ gutsy round nine loss to the minor premiers Riddell demonstrated how far the team had come since 2019, when the club was barely able to make up the numbers.
“We were lucky to have 25 [total players] previous years,” she said.
“But we did a big social media campaign and made changes within the club. For us it was about getting some stability and studying the basics skills while having a lot of fun along the way.
“We ended up with more than 60 girls, which blew our minds.
“I just love our community here, playing a part in it.”
Rix said the club will start preseason training in November if restrictions are eased.
To get involved, contact: michelle.rix@hotmail.com
