Top coaches: 2022 Echuca-Moama Sportstar Awards coach of the year winners Andrew Walker, left, and Simon Maddox, right, with Claudia Turvey from Echuca Travel Centre and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Col Pearse.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
The dynamic duo of Simon Maddox and Andrew Walker have been crowned the coaches of the year after taking out the prize at the 2022 Echuca-Moama Sportstar Awards on Monday night.
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The two co-coaches led Echuca Football Netball Club to its first senior premiership in two decades, breaking a 20-year drought after the Murray Bombers defeated Euroa by 12 points in the grand final in September.
After taking over as coaches in 2018, it was a long, difficult road to the premiership for Walker, Maddox and the Murray Bombers.
Echuca lost the 2019 grand final and then missed out on the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to COVID-19, before finally reaching the pinnacle in 2022.
The Murray Bombers finished on top of the GVL ladder with an impressive 16-2 win-loss record, before storming through to the last game in September.
Echuca defeated Mansfield by 69 in the qualifying final and Euroa by 74 points in the semi-final, before besting the Magpies again two weeks later in the finale.
“It has been a journey. We are really fortunate to have the calibre of players coming through our grades,” Walker said after receiving the award.
“We are six years into it now and for us, we just want to keep going on that upward trajectory and I think we still feel like we are doing that.
“We are in a really good place and we have plenty of fantastic people coming through the club.”
The sweetest victory: Co-coaches Simon Maddox (middle, in the hat) and Andrew Walker celebrate as the Murray Bombers hoist the Hastie Perpetual Trophy aloft after the GVL grand final win over Euroa.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
Maddox said it was special to receive the coach of the year award, but he said the prize was about more than just him and Walker.
“It is a bit of reward for hard work. I don’t think it is just an award for me and Andrew, there are heaps of people involved,” Maddox said.
“We coach as a panel, so Leo Tenace, Troy Murphy, they all contribute. Even the players have a fair bit of say in where we go as a footy club and what we are doing.
“It is just the icing on the cake to be the team of the year and coach of the year and everything else. We can hang that on the wall as a bit of recognition but it is all about everyone else, not just me and Andrew.”
Maddox said local players had been at the heart of Echuca’s success, something the Murray Bombers were immensely proud of.
“We have seen some boys push on to VFL level. We are striving to be a club where we promote our own kids coming through, kids from the local area,” he said.
“That’s the sort of club we want to be, we don’t need too many blokes from Melbourne to win premierships, we want to be the Echuca footy club with Echuca locals.”
Leo Tenace (Echuca Football Netball Club and Echuca Pirates) and Carri Carter (Moama Football Netball Club) were the other two finalists for the coach of the year gong.
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