United in game’s spirit

By Gavin Staindl
ON A recent training camp outside of Bairnsdale, Gippsland Power coach Adam Dowie asked his side whether it was important to play football in good spirit – the reply was “no, winning was more important”.
With round one kicking-off this Saturday against the Dandenong Stingrays at Morwell, Dowie says one of his ambitions as the newly appointed Power coach for 2011 is not just to teach football to his under-18s but life lessons as well.
“I asked them what is better – to be honourable and respected, and to lose, or to win in poor spirit,” Dowie said.
“I said to them you get more respect from losing in the right way than winning in the wrong way,” he said.
Playing in the “right spirit” will be a focus for Dowie this year and was prominently featured in the list of four goals set out by coaches and players during the team’s three-day camp in Paynesville.
Also featuring in the list of goals was a promise to retain courage and hardness at the ball, traits that have been associated with Gippsland sides for a long time.
“We have a good group of core players who can win the contested ball,” Dowie said.
“In terms of the rest of the competition, we have real strength and we will be targeting opposition teams who are not as hard at it,” he said.
After losing to the Calder Cannons by 58 points in last year’s TAC Cup grand final at Etihad Stadium, Dowie is also keen to turn his team into one that is “hard to play against”.
“We want to be a very hard team to play against,” he said.
“We want to be a team that is hard to get the ball off, a team that is hard to beat for a contested footy, and a team that when we don’t have the ball is hard to break open,” he said.
Dowie is reluctant to label his side as the best team ever, as many coaches pre-season like to do, but he admitted his under-18s are a “really good group” that have a good blend of top and bottom age players.
“I have walked into a great culture,” the new Power coach said.
“We haven’t got problems with guys looking out for just themselves or with big egos… just 40 kids who are desperate to be in this program.
“Unlike the metro clubs who live close by and train two or three nights a week, we have guys travelling up to four hours to get to Morwell and we are training one night a week so it takes a while for guys to get to know each other.
“But we want to be very, very united this year… it will be one of our strengths” Dowie said.