By Hayley Wildes
“I expect this year to see a club that is really galvanised.”
That’s the message from Casey Demons coach and former Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs, and North Melbourne player Jade Rawlings.
In his first season as head coach of Casey, Rawlings – who has head coaching experience with Coburg in 2008 and Richmond as AFL caretaker coach in 2009 – outlines what he expects of his players.
“Any of our VFL-listed players that come in and play for us, come in with a real purpose and show a real team-first mindset and commitment to what we believe in.” Rawlings said.
“From there, we’ll go as far as we can go – I don’t set a ceiling and I’m not a great crystal baller. But one thing I do expect to see is a footy club that is united in its approach, that loves playing the game each week, respects the game and really enjoys playing together.”
Rawlings, who has been an assistant at Melbourne since 2011 – as backline coach and then transitioning to defensive coordinator – jumped at the opportunity to once again lead his own team.
“It was 10 years ago since I was a [head coach] and I’ve been assistant coaching for a long time, so when the opportunity was presented to be able to head coach again it was very entertaining for me.” Rawlings said.
“I haven’t regretted it one bit – I love my job and I really enjoy the players and staff that I work with, so it’s been very enjoyable and we haven’t even played a game yet.”
Rawlings admits a lot has changed since his last head coaching role – for the better.
“I think a lot of things haven’t changed, but at the same time, over 10 years a lot of things evolve and develop.” Rawlings said.
“I’ve probably got more resources at my disposal as a coach this time around than what I had at Coburg. This modern day and age of technology, with how our young people probably behave is a bit different to what I was used to 10 years ago but all positive stuff.”
With preseason almost coming to a close, Rawlings reflected on his first summer at the helm.
“We’ve had a pretty good summer – we’ve been able to retain a number of players from the 2017 list. There’s obviously a lot of players who enjoyed their time at the club and despite there being no development league in 2018, a lot of our players have stayed.” Rawlings said.
“We’ve also been able to recruit a couple of others as well, so we’re quite satisfied with what we’ve been able to achieve over the summer and we’ve given ourselves a good launching pad for the season.”
Casey fans will be happy to hear that Rawlings will require his players to be absolute competitors and build a defence that is steadfast. After all, spending seven years as a backline specialist with Melbourne, it’s fair to say he knows a thing or two about instilling a defensive mindset.
“There’s a high premium on how we attack the footy and the contest side of the game.” Rawlings said.
“We’ll have a very high emphasis on how we defend the ground as well. It’s my background, it’s my area of passion really – the defensive elements of the game, so it’s something that I’ve been pretty strongly trying to impose on the group in my time at the club so far.”
Whilst the defence is at the forefront of Rawlings’ mind, don’t for a second think that the Casey’s game style will be a boring one. The Demons will be looking to have that defensive energy slingshot their offence to new heights.
“That’s effectively why our focus is on contest and defence because there are two ways you can win the ball; at a contest or getting it back off the opposition. Then we’ve worked very hard on how we want to try to hit the scoreboard from those situations.” Rawlings said.
