In the wake of the retirement of a popular clubman and Pascoe Cup coach, Henwood Park has taken a gamble on a decorated player and first-time coach.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Kyle Doswell will hand over the clipboard to Matthew Menser, a Canberra man who burst onto the Wagga scene midway through 2016, playing for the unstoppable Lake Albert Sharks.
“I’ll be able to speak with him and he’ll help out if I need him,” Menser said.
“I think it will be daunting at first, once I get into the swing of things and meet the team it should be fine.”
Henwood Park has entrusted Menser with the task of reviving a first-grade squad that showed great potential at the season’s inception and lost momentum due to injury and motivation.
“It’s not a case of building momentum, it’s a case of settling in and starting a-fresh,” he said.
We’ll have a fresh, fit team, and I have a lot to work with
- Hawks' coach Matt Menser
“We had a lot of injuries, we’ll have a fresh, fit team, and I have a lot to work with.”
The midfielder, who, at the height of his 15 year-long Canberra Premier league career, played for Tuggeranong against Melbourne Victory in the 2013 FFA Cup, will hang up the boots to focus on his new role as coach.
Menser remembers the Hawks as a tough opponent.
“I fell into a team that had a lot of good players, had a really good year, winning the premiership helped,” he said.
“The first time we played Henwood it was a really close game, the first half was the hardest half of soccer we all played all year.”
Hawks’ spokesman Ryan Smith confirmed most players will stick around for another stab at the premiership, including goalkeeper Nathan Trinder, who had considered retiring at the end of 2016. Jake Morgan and Matt Takats are costly losses, but Smith is confident the club will pull a couple of recruits in upcoming months. 2015 golden boot Jake Ploenges remains uncertain.
“If he’s good enough to play Wanderers then we want him to be there, we’re not building our team around him,” Smith said.
“He’s definitely always welcome back and will complement the team well, his defensive pressure is amazing, but we’ll see what he decides in the new year. We’re confident Matt can build on what Kyle did in 2015, and get us into the big dance again. We have a very good reserve grade, a lot of depth, we’re looking at bumping some of them up.”
Hawks’ reserves won the premiership for the second consecutive season in 2016.
