After coaching Yarrawonga to a premiership in the strong Ovens & Murray Football League in 2023 and runners-up in 2024, Steve Johnson is impressed with the standard of play in the Geelong Football League this season.
The former Geelong and GWS star is in charge of Newtown & Chilwell this season and said the depth of most clubs’ lists was slightly deeper than the O&M.
“I think they’re both really strong competitions,” he said.
“If I was to compare the footy here, I would say that it might be a little bit faster and and just more contests as well, just potentially because of the slightly smaller grounds.
“I think the depth on the lists of GFL clubs, particularly the strong clubs, is a bit stronger than the Ovens & Murray player lists are. I think players 15 to 35 on our list, the gap between them is so small. I think we’ll play up to around 35 to 40 players in our senior team throughout this year, so the gap’s not not very big at all, and they train like semi-professionals like they are do in country footy as well I suppose.
“(I’m) really enjoying it and now getting a bit more of an understanding of the competition. I’m literally doing a review of the Grovedale game right now, so just learning more and more about the opposition and how I guess the game style at this level is played.”
The Eagles failed to make finals last season, but Johnson said success for his side at the end of the year wouldn’t be measured by ladder position.
“I haven’t really thought about it too much what success looks like, but I think just right at the moment, we’re just trying to get better,” he said.
“We’ve got a good strong core group of senior players that are playing some really good footy at the moment, but we’ve also blooded I think it’s nine debutantes into the senior team, and there’s a group of those guys that are only 18 to 19 years old. So looking to get improvement out of those guys throughout the year and hopefully we’re playing better at the end of the year than what we are now. That’s probably the best indicator that we’re looking forward to this constant improvement as that takes us wherever it takes us.
“We’ll wait and see, but I’ve been really happy with our response after playing a couple of really good teams at the top of the ladder in St Mary’s and St Joseph’s. The boys have responded really well, that’s what I’m most happy about.”
