New Maitland Pickers playing coach Luke Dorn is a hardened rugby league professional with the heart of a footy romantic.
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A fiercely proud Maitland boy, the former UK Super League star is confident the foundations have been laid for the Pickers rise back to the top of Newcastle Rugby League and a sustained era of success.
“It was very important part of my decision to coach to be surrounded by a quality team and the club has done a great job in securing a great coaching panel,” Dorn said.
“I think the people involved in Maitland have done a fantastic job, but I think the time was right to get a new direction around the club.
“The club has been very supportive of me from the get go and it’s an exciting period ahead for us.”
Former Maitland first grade coach Max Winkler will be Dorn’s assistant and Luke Clydesdale returns to the club as reserve grade coach.
Open grade will be coach by Jye Delaney and Newcastle Rebels under-18 coach Andrew Fawcett will be at the helm of the under-19s.
Former Australian touch football representative Tony Howard will coach the Ladies League Tag team.
Two crucial members of the team will be former first grade coach Trevor Ott and Nick Barnes who will oversee the club’s new development training program with juniors and throughout the club.
“We’ve got some plans in place to work on bridging the gap between juniors and first grade and to make our juniors even stronger,” he said.
“Trevor Ott will still be involved in that capacity which is terrific and we will work at lessening the gap straight away and to give Maitland longer term success and sustainability.
“It will give those junior players coming through a much clearer pathway and platform to play first grade.”
Dorn said after a draining year playing and training out of Coronation Oval, the move back to the revamped Maitland Sportsground was an exciting time for everyone at the club and the community as a whole
“I’ve mentioned plenty of times that I’m a really proud Maitland boy and to be able to lead the team out on to the new ground will be a real honour,” he said.
“It’s an exciting time for the club and the area as a whole to have a facility of that quality to watch footy out.
“Hopefully our performances will warrant big crowds and the kind of support that leads to success.
“I think it will be a springboard for not only this season but for long-term success.”
Dorn said the key priority on the player front had been to secure the 2017 squad and to make early moves to secure experienced quality players to the squad to add to the core group of young players.
“We will pretty much have all the current squad tied down very soon, which will be great,” he said.
We’re heading into the market, we’ve been talking to people and hopefully we’ll get a few across the line soon that we can announce and that will show us where we are at.
“We’re not going to wait until January and see what is around, we are on the front foot trying to get the best squad as early as possible.
“There are people coming out of the blue interested in coming aboard so hopefully they come to fruition.
“But honestly I don’t think we need a great deal in terms of what we need to build, we just need to thicken up our depth through first grade and second grade.
“If we can do that we can go a long way.”
Dorn said promotion of local talent and bringing in select players to complement the core group was the key to sustained success.
“We have a group of really talent young players coming through. Guys like Tyler Carter and Jarrod Smith who are just coming into their best years will be the leaders going into the future,” he said.
“The group just ahead of them such as Rob Mason and Jacob Sinclair are both back and I think really looking forward to be able to train on a decent surface.
“Maso will be like a new recruit in some ways and will be important in helping our big boys up front. He will be fantastic and we are really looking forward to a big off season with those guys.
“We want as many Maitland juniors in our team as we can, obviously for the area and for how the points system works in the competition, the more juniors you have in the team the better.
“We can hopefully building some quality around that and bring in some other established player in to help those guys in their development. That’s the plan, the age of those guys and the experience they’ve already got is exciting as it can be a springboard for sustained success.
“Once we get the players signed on our job as a coaching group is to turn them from players who play well every week into players who play great every week and give them the best opportunity to reach their potential.”
Dorn said the main focus over summer would be on defence.
“We have plenty of points in us, but we need to strengthen our defence,” he said. “We only needed to be a bit better in defence and we could have played semis this season.”