Border Mail |
BEN Hollands has declared he wants to win a premiership by 2015 after extending his coaching contract at Wodonga by two years.
The Bulldogs last night unveiled Hollands as coach until the end of 2015, re-appointing the 2004 premiership player after three seasons at the helm.
In an added boost, Wodonga has also re-signed a host of key names including Sam Maher, Sam Livingstone, Steve Murray and Matt Seiter.
Hollands, 35, said his motivation behind signing on was simple.
“We want to win a flag,” Hollands said.
“Things can turn around pretty quickly at this level.
“You need to get everything right, but we’ve laid a really solid foundation and now we need to add some experience around them.
“The club has been pretty resilient over the past few years and been forced to take its medicine but I think we’re ready to have a fair dinkum crack.
“We’ve done a lot of the hard work and for me, for ‘Bencey’ (president Richard Bence), the board and a lot of the players who have been through the lot — we want to taste some success.”
Hollands has coached the Bulldogs for the past three seasons after returning from Adelaide late in 2010.
The former SANFL star, and ex-Richmond player, said the Bulldogs were already looking at recruits for next season.
“We wanted to get on the front foot now and have a bit of certainty,” Hollands explained.
“We’re already pro-
active in looking towards next year.
“Not just with our current group but looking to add to it.”
Hollands implored the entire city of Wodonga to get behind the club, which has battled since Hollands took over thanks largely to a $167,000 debt announced just months after he first accepted the job.
“The situation now is the polar opposite to when I first signed,” Hollands said.
“But we need the whole city of Wodonga on board.
“We need more members, more sponsors and we need a higher level of participation from the Wodonga community.
“When the city gets on board and really supports our footy club, as I saw personally around 2003 and 2004, it’s a really amazing place to be around.”
Bence was delighted to announce the news.
“We’re really happy with the outcome,” Bence said.
“We obviously haven’t had the measured success that we want but we’re really happy with how Ben has managed the players and moving forward we’re looking to put some better players around that and getting ourselves back to where we need to be.
“Coaching’s not just about being a good player or getting a good result.
“These days it’s about the whole package and who you are as a person.
“Ben ticks all of those boxes.”
