Ian Andrew is upskilling Hoppers Bowls Club players – and not just the bottom-enders.
The new coach wants to fast-track the process for the players in his top side as well – those who have been on the wrong end of heavy defeats in the first two games since their promotion to the Bowls Victoria division 2 competition, which is the third level of metropolitan bowls.
Andrew, who travels from Ballarat three times a week to take up his new role, told Star Weekly the gulf in quality between the division 3 tier that Hoppers played last year and division 2 is bigger than he initially thought.
“It’s a fairly big step for us,” he said.
“The problem is there’s very little depth in our top sides at the moment.
“From one division to another, it’s a huge step and you need to pick up a few players to compete.”
Andrew is taking a holistic approach to his first year in charge.
It doesn’t matter if you are a skip in the top side or an up and comer in the bottom side, his aim is to make everyone better.
“How would you like to go out there and play every week, play terrible, get beat … no one likes to do that,” Andrew said.
“All I want is for them to play a little better so they can enjoy their game.”
Hoppers’ top side has endured a baptism of fire. It’s taken only one rink – Dennis Hewitt snatched one in Saturday’s big 112-62 loss to Melton – from a possible eight in the opening fortnight.
One thing Hoppers can’t afford is to have their better players missing, and a hand injury will sideline Colin Ravenscroft until Christmas, while skip Bill Weir was unavailable last outing.
“Unfortunately, it’s the top-end players we don’t have when they’re out,” Andrew said.
“We’ve probably got four or five in the side who aren’t good enough for the level, but we’ve got nobody else.”
Despite the losing start, Andrew can sense the growing excitement at the club to have climbed higher in Bowls Victoria ranks.
At training on Tuesdays and Thursdays in seasons past, you would be lucky to find a full rink in operation, whereas now two rinks are chock-full.
There’s a desire among players to do better with Andrew, who has a Bowls Australia advanced certificate.
He’s already proving to be a great sounding board for questions fired his way.
“They’re having a real go,” Andrew said. “They said to me around the club that we’ve never had this kind of vibe before.
“They’re all keen, they’re all trying and we will get better. I want to make everybody a better player so they can enjoy the game.”
Andrew has an open-ended contract but envisages a minimum two-to-three year term. He’s eager to see the top two sides consolidate their positions in divisions two and three.
“They want to get to division 1, but that won’t happen for a couple of years.
“So I want that side locked into division 2 this year, and to keep the division 3 side in division 3,” he said.
“If we can do that in year one, we’ve done pretty well, I would think.”
Meanwhile, Werribee went down 101-69 to Essendon (2) in a division 1 blow-out on Saturday.
