Harper Sercombe
Parkside will have co-coaches as it returns to the Western Region Football League division 1 competition.
The reigning division 2 premiers have added Michael Licciardo as co-coach alongside Chris Muratore.
Licciardo is no stranger to Merv Hughes Oval having won a flag with the club in 2014.
The club said it wanted to provide more support for Muratore as he also juggles Victorian Football League and family commitments.
“It was about bringing someone with another set of skills and extra knowledge to the footy club,” Muratore said.
“It’s always hard to find someone you can trust and know of and ask a lot of as an assistant coach, so to bring in someone with his background and knowledge and knowing that we could share the title would obviously help us in division 1.
“It wasn’t a worry for myself to share a title or having a title, it was just worrying about what the first year back in division 1 for this footy club looks like and we just wanted to make sure that we get the best people in the best spots and have as many of them as we can and getting Michael who’s a really close mate of mine was just a really good fit.
“He knows what being a Parksider is all about, the history that it comes with and the big following that it does have, so that was really important.”
Muratore said he went pretty hard to get Licciardo across a couple of months ago saying he deserves an opportunity to be senior coach.
“This is his first time doing it and if I can help him out with a little bit of knowledge along the way, and we can bounce off each other, it’s going to make us better as a whole,” he said.
It’s not just the coaching that has changed in the off-season with the Magpies bringing in more than a dozen fresh faces to the club, headlined by star brother duo, Jack and Tom Condon from the Essendon District Football League premier division runners up, Strathmore.
“It’s been a huge off-season, we knew our list was really good in B-grade but we needed to make sure that we were going to be really good in A-grade,” Muratore said.
“We want to go up and be strong and still be really competitive, you see so many sides go up and then just be OK, we don’t want to go up and have a two or three win season, we want to be really successful and make sure the jump that we’ve been trying to have for 15 years is a good one.
“We’ve pretty much kept 90 per cent of the whole list… a lot of the guys love being around the place, we’ve created a really good culture where I think we’ve only lost something like two players in two years to other football clubs.
“We’ve nailed the off-season, we’ve got four or five new coaches on board as well, it’s been really positive and successful, to know now that we can get to training and be happy with our list is a real positive.”
Tom Condon was the EDFL’s leading goal kicker last season, slotting 67 majors, including four in the grand final loss to Keilor.
“I went and watched the grand final against Keilor and I just thought I’ve got to put this guy in a Parkside jumper and do whatever I can to do it, and put our club back on the map with a quality person and player,” Muratore said.
“With Jack being a great leader down back we’ve sewed up both ends with two quality A-grade guys who have been around and played high standards of footy.”
The only question mark remaining is over the signature of the three time league best and fairest Shaun Campbell. While the premiership skipper is yet to put pen to paper, with a move to Queensland on the cards, Muratore is confident his star player will commit to the Magpies in the coming weeks.
