After two premierships, a promotion and a season in Victorian baseball’s top flight, Dean Marnell has decided to call time on his coaching duties with Williamstown Wolves.
Behind his decision to stand down, Marnell cited his growing assistant-coaching commitments with the Melbourne Aces in the Australian Baseball League and more time needed to focus on family and work.
The Wolves will immediately begin their search for a new coach.
“It got really tough with work, family and Aces commitments,” Marnell told Star Weekly.
“The ABL took a real toll and the club and I saw eye to eye on that.
“The last six or seven weeks I was in the line-up basically as a player.”
Marnell might not be lost to the club altogether.
His playing future is up for discussion, but, at 39, he will leave the decision whether to play on up to the new coach.
“I hope to [stay on as a player], but I’m 39 and if a new coach came in and said, ‘You’re too old, we need to start getting some young guys in’, I’d be like, no worries, I’m all for that,” Marnell said.
“If we can’t get the new guys in there who are ready, I’m ready to fill a role.”
The new coach will inherit a team that won nine-and-a-half games in its promotion season in division 1.
It had the second-worst record in the league but showed its potential in multiple victories over premiership contenders.
“We’ve beaten Geelong, Melbourne and Blackburn, and those three teams are in the division 1 playoffs,” Marnell said.
“On our day we can compete with the top teams. It’s about maintaining it and learning the little things about the mental aspect of the game, playing nine innings, not seven.
“We’ve scored a lot of runs – we’re sixth or seventh in the competition for runs scored –but runs against … we’ve given up too many.
“You’ve got to be good in all facets of the game and if you’re not, you’re won’t be going to the finals.
“The guys learnt a lot about division 1 baseball this year – it’s tough coming up first year – so hopefully they get another opportunity next year to have a red hot go.”
The Wolves’ season ended on a high note on Saturday with a 4-1 road win over Doncaster.
They still don’t know if they will return to division 1 next summer or get demoted to division 2.
It will depend on how the division 2 finals unfold.
If one of Sunshine, Werribee or Moorabbin takes out the premiership, the Wolves will remain in the top flight, as Sunshine is already promoted and Werribee and Moorabbin don’t meet division 1 criteria.
The only club that can replace the Wolves is the fourth-ranked Springvale, but it faces an uphill task of needing to win two best-of-three road series to claim the title.
“Worst case scenario for us is if Springvale beats Sunshine in the semi-final and goes through to the grand final and wins that,” Marnell said.
“If Springvale wins the premiership in divvy 2, we’re going back down and they’re up.
“It would be nice if Sunshine can beat them and we’re put out of our misery by this weekend.”
