Oliver Lees
New Bacchus Marsh coach Lisa Tyrell has adopted the mantra of “getting better together” as her side looks to improve in the Ballarat Netball League.
Tyrell was announced as the new head coach in December following the Cobras winless 2023 campaign in the A-grade competition.
The club had difficulties finding a regular starting seven throughout the season.
Facing the challenge of turning around the fortunes of a club that hasn’t won a game in two years is no small thing, but Tyrell said the playing group is taking a step-by-step approach to address their shortcomings.
“Our mantra at the moment is getting better together,” she said.
“We’re really trying to work together as a team and they all understand we are trying to rebuild and improve.”
“We’re making the training sessions really simple and having a focus for each of the sessions and making sure we’re telling the players the reason why we’re doing that.
“I think it has helped them get on board with the drills we’ve been doing.”
And rather than purely looking outside the club for the answers, Tyrell said there’s been a push over the pre-season to build a culture across the Cobras’ football and netball programs.
Tyrell praised the leadership of the new senior men’s football coach Dennis Armfield, who led a pre-season camp to Lake Dewar and invited all senior players.
Armfield played 145 games of AFL for Carlton and since retiring has held a number of high level coaching roles.
“They all got to work with each other and that was really special to see, the girls really appreciated it,” she said.
The Cobras also welcomed Ruby Barkmeyer and Maggie Caris from the Melbourne Vixens to run a training program late last year, which Tyrell said was an invaluable experience for her young players.
“We did four sessions with them which has set us up nicely and we’ll continue with that training construct over the season,” she said.
The Cobras will aim to give more players from the under-19s program experience at senior level.
Both Abbie Buttigieg and Tyla Ryan have been selected to play B-grade after showing positive signs throughout pre-season.
The Cobras will face Ballarat in round one on April 13.
Tyrell said she was looking forward to the contest.
“From what I understand they’re in a bit of a rebuild themselves, so hopefully it will be a good match up,” she said.
