Tara Murray
It’s the beginning of a new era for Hoppers Bowls Club with the appointment of Mark Coleman as coach.
After a few tough years on the green, the Hawks have got Coleman in to help turn things around and take the club to the next level.
Coleman said he was excited by the challenge ahead of him.
“It’s pretty exciting,” he said. “I was with Bowls Australia and a few things happened there and I was made redundant.
“It’s been six months after that and I jumped at the chance to join Hoppers. I had played at the City of Geelong previously and there was a member who said there were good people here and convinced me pretty easily to take the role.
“They had been chasing me for a while.”
Coleman has been playing bowls for 20 years with the most of that time in Geelong. He also spent four years up in Sydney.
He has been coaching for 15 years including helping take Inverleigh from division 11 to division 4 with promotion nearly every single year.
He has also done an advanced coaching course with Bowls Australia, which less than 60 people have completed.
Coleman said he had seen some good signs already in his time at the Hawks.
“There’s been two Thursday practices and there’s been more people at training than at the City of Geelong,” he said.
“They want to learn and they want to improve, which makes my job a lot easier. I’m teaching them different fundamentals that you would have in a premier league club, a different way to play bowls.”
Coleman said one of the biggest things they were working on was making sure that they’re bowling as a team and making sure they have the right people on the green together.
On the green, Hoppers top side is set for a second straight relegation.
The Hawks are currently bottom in Bowls Victoria weekend pennant, division 3, section 1. On Saturday, they lost to Palm Lake, 89 (16)-66 (2).
Victor Rivera was the winning skip for the Hawks.
Coleman said he was looking at the bigger picture.
“We’ve got a good chance of making finals with our second and third sides,” he said. “That is a good result.
“It looks like two of our three Thursday teams will make finals, so it seems four out of six sides will make finals so that it a good thing.
“We want to get back on track with our top side. We’re also rebranding and doing a lot of things off the green too.
