PAUL Hood’s place in TAC Cup annals is already assured, but the new Geelong Falcons coach has also set a competition first.
Hood, winner of the Morrish Medal in 1995, is the first winner of the competition’s highest individual award to coach in the TAC and to add to the accomplishment, he’s coaching the club he represented.
The achievement is not lost on Hood, who first played with the Falcons under Terry Bright in 1994 and ’95, the latter the first year Mick Turner stepped in as club Regional Manager.
More recently, Hood worked with the Falcon’s Under 15 squad and then as an assistant coach.
“It was always something that I had my eye on. I had such a good time with the Falcons,” Hood said.
“I just kept my toe in the water, I’ve always been pretty impressed by the TAC Cup and how professional it is,” Hood said.
“It’s absolutely amazing. The kids get the best development help available, it’s always going forward.”
Hood noted first generation TAC Cup players are returning to the competition to help the next wave of youngsters improve their football talent.
What continually amazes Hood is the number of volunteers, not only at Geelong, but throughout the competition that are willing to give up their time and energy to help.
“On match day there could be 30 to 40 staff doing a whole host of things to help these young kids improve themselves,” Hood said.
After exiting the TAC Cup, Hood spent one season playing with North Ballarat in the VFL before returning to St Joseph’s, his original club, in the Geelong Football League.
Hood remained with St Joseph’s throughout his playing career. It proved an inspired decision as Hood was able to secure a job at St Joseph’s College after he completed his university degree.
When his playing career finished, then Falcons coach Garry Hocking asked Hood to join the club’s coaching staff.
“I was very fortunate that Garry was able to share his knowledge with me and making sure that I was ready to step up,” Hood said.
After the Falcons dominated the home and away season last year with a team that included Ben Cunnington, the No 5 selection in the AFL National Draft, Garry Rowan (No 6), Jaspar McMillan-Pittard (No 16) and Callum Bartlett (No 27), Hood views this year’s squad very differently.
And, that’s despite the fact that as many as 20 players, including five 19-year-olds, return from 2009.
“We had some really high draft picks last year, but this year we are more even across the list,” Hood said.
“We are looking for a bunch of players to develop rather than any single one. We’ve got an even blend of talls and smalls, in the past we have been one way or the other.
“The good thing is both the talls and smalls are going to be really quick.”
Hood said the focus would be on working on last year’s successes with an emphasis on improving on those results.
He added with a greater overall depth the aim would be for the Falcons to maintain a consistently high standard throughout the home and away and finals.
Last Modified on 06/05/2010 14:18