Dattoli was officially named coach of Lower Plenty on Monday morning and says the playing list he has acquired has a similar look to the Roosters list he took over at the conclusion of the 2008 season.
After an eighth-place finish in Dattoli’s first year in charge, the Roosters claimed a stunning premiership triumph in 2010 courtesy of an upset Grand Final win over Heidelberg and Dattoli said he is confident of now making Lower Plenty a strong Division 1 club.
“I think it was equally as tough taking on the West Preston job as it will be the Lower Plenty job,” he said. “I think they’re pretty similar comparisons.”
“The motivational thing for us as a coaching group to take over at West Preston was on the back of their under-19s winning two out of three Grand Finals prior and we knew there was a young, youthful list to work with and it’s a very similar case as well at Lower Plenty.
“There’s no doubt that it is a good developing list here. It’s a very young list which is a bonus so we will roll our sleeves up and really try to educate the whole club from a Division 1 training habit scenario.”
After claiming the 2011 Division 2 premiership, Lower Plenty narrowly avoided relegation in its first season back in the top flight.
The Bears won three of their final four games of the season – including a seven-point victory over a Dattoli-coached West Preston-Lakeside – to evade the wooden spoon at Whittlesea’s expense.
Dattoli said it was important his side now produced its end of season form on a more consistent basis, but said he was impressed with what he saw of the side during the 2012 season.
“They were able to knock off West Preston, they beat Montmorency who finished on top of the ladder, they lost to Heidelberg by only two goals and to Northcote Park by a goal who ended up winning the premiership and they probably should have beaten a couple of other sides along the way,” he said.
“Realistically they probably could have won six to eight games and when you look at the fact that only 11 wins, well West Preston had 10 wins and drew two which equals 11 wins, gets you into finals you’re not that far away from finishing in the top five.
Dattoli met with a number of Lower Plenty players on Monday night to begin preparing for the upcoming pre-season.
With training set to begin in mid-November, he is likely to use the next three weeks to obtain feedback from his playing group. Dattoli said it was important for him to hear the players’ thoughts on the current game plan and work on ways to implement improvements to it.
However, he did concede it would be hard to commit to a definitive game plan until he knew his final playing list – something which won’t be known until much later in the pre-season.
Dattoli revealed that he will be bringing across the same coaching staff from West Preston-Lakeside that masterminded the 2010 premiership win.
He said the group would set realistic short-term goals as the club tries to cement its place in the top flight, but admitted that nothing was impossible moving forward.
“We’ll be realistic with where everything is at and we’ll have to get familiar with the list which will probably take us a good 12 months and probably to formulate and understand our game style is going to take a good 12 months to 18 months as well.
“(But) when we won the flag at West in 2010 it wasn’t necessarily planned as our goal or objective leading in.
“If that puts us in good stead and knocking on the door of finals next year then that would be great.”
Dattoli replaces Garry Ramsay who has moved to Division 1 rival Macleod.
