COMING into his second year at Diamond Creek, Craig Hayes’ influence since taking the reins as senior coach continues to pay dividends for the young Demons.
Winning seven and a half matches in 2015, with a number of close losses, was an improvement on 2014’s return of five wins – and near relegation.
“(My first year) was really good. I really enjoyed myself,” Hayes told NFL.org.au.
“There’d been a big turnover in committee and personnel.
“It’s a very positive environment (and) we made a conscious effort to play the kids.”
Junior development has been central to Hayes’ plans since arriving at Coventry Oval from Banyule.
“We picked up a couple of recruits (last year) which obviously helped us but the main emphasis was on the younger players. We put as much time into those kids as we could,” Hayes said.
“Some clubs give kids a game and they sit them on the bench for a half, but we gave them meaningful roles, right from the word go.
“That was the sort of attitude we took to try and fast-track their development.
“(We had) 12 players under the age of 19 who averaged probably seven games for the year, which was a fantastic effort.
Hayes said Diamond Creek had implemented a program that would best prepare its junior players for the transition into senior football.
“We ran a program that started last year, where the under-17s do pre-season with the senior group,” he said.
“So we try to make that transition (easier), we try to break down some of the barriers, we have a buddy system and try to make those kids more comfortable.
“The flow on through is really good, and we’ll be seeing that again this year.”
Among the new recruits for the Demons include former Bundoora and Mernda premiership player Matt Aquilina, young tall Oliver Parks, former Eltham gun Brad Perry, ex-Eltham and Lower Plenty midfielder Kane Tenace and Nathan Sleep from Old Ivanhoe Grammarians in the VAFA.
“They’ve all signed and we’re just waiting for the paperwork to run its course. We don’t see any hold-ups with those clearances. We’re very pleased with our recruits thus far,” Hayes said.
“All of them have been training since before Christmas. We’ve had a strong commitment from them which has been fantastic.
“Two of the boys being (Matt) Aquilina and (Nathan) Sleep are coming back from long-term injury where they played very limited footy, if any, last year. The fact that they’ve been on the track since before Christmas has been very heartening.
“Ollie Parks, Perry and Kane Tenace are training very strongly.”
The pre-season has also seen the Demons improve through time trials, according to Hayes.
“We’ve increased our workload running-wise. We’ve only been back three weeks but we’ve seen significant improvement in times from Christmas to now,” he said.
“We have a pretty rigid and hard running program that they’re expected to follow.”
But on the field, 2016 shapes as a promising year after finishing 2015 as Division 2’s best defensive team.
“Our losses (in 2015) were really quite marginal, and our improvement went a little bit deeper than the win-loss ratio,” Hayes said.
“We don’t ignore the win-loss table, but we have a real strong belief in the way we play our footy.
“We were the best defensive team in the competition last year. We just have issues scoring. We’ll be addressing those issues.”
At just 30 years of age Simon Buchanan will head into the 2016 campaign as Diamond Creek’s oldest player, with the club’s second oldest player just 26.
With the blueprint heavily focussed on youth, Hayes believes it’s a good position for a senior coach to be in heading into his second year.
“It’s exciting (and) we’re really looking forward to the year ahead.”
