New coach for HBL

The South West Football League’s tumultuous offseason coaching carousel continues to spin with Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault becoming the sixth club to appoint a new league mentor in the past three months.

One-time Swan Districts midfielder Robbie Gray will take the reins at the Lions after being lured to the club by former WAFL teammates Adam Shine and Matt Stevens.

Gray replaces Garry Dyer, who led HBL to consecutive 5-13 marks in his two years in charge.

He moved to the South West from Bullsbrook earlier this year as part of the relocation of Rangeview Stud, which he owns with wife Jody.

“I’ve done a bit of coaching with Gingin and the Bullsbrook Football Club and this is definitely a step up from that but that is okay, I’m not intimidated by the challenge, ” Gray said.

Stevens, who enjoyed a successful SWFL career playing with the Lions in the noughties, will act as Gray’s assistant as he familiarises himself with the playing group.

“I haven’t actually seen the squad play yet so for the time being we’ll knuckle down and try to get fit and organised and prepare to try and win games of footy, ” Gray said.

“It seems like it is a young group and a very enthusiastic group.

“Certainly HBL appears to be a well organised and structured club with a good population of juniors coming through and plenty of people involved on an administrative level that are passionate and loyal to club.”

Gray said he had spoken with a number of the club’s senior players but was yet to set his goals for next season.

“All I can say is we are going to prepare to win games of footy, ” he said.

“Goals will be reassessed when we get on in earnest at the start of the season.

“We’ll set our expectations as we go along and in the meantime will try to get to a point where we can compete with the likes of Eaton and South Bunbury.”

While impressed with the developing talent at the club, Gray admitted he would need to complement his young players with older heads in order to be competitive next season.

“For the time being I do think we may have a bit of a deficiency in older players,” he said.

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