By Tara Murray
Bacchus Marsh has appointed Banyule premiership winning coach Peter Davey as its senior coach for next two seasons.
Davey, who coached Banyule to a Northern Football League division 3 premiership in 2017, was named as the Cobras new coach on Thursday.
He replaces Travis Hodgson who stepped down from the role, with 12 months left on his contract. Hodgson has since been appointed as the Sunbury Lions coach.
Davey said he was still getting his head around the appointment, with everything happening pretty quickly.
“I had spoken to a few clubs, but Bacchus Marsh came out of the blue,” he said.
“I’ve moved down to Geelong and spoke with some Geelong clubs. [Bacchus Marsh President] Adam Sutherland called me out of the blue and asked would I be interested in having a chat.
“It happened in the space of a week.”
Davey admits to knowing little about the Cobras heading into the interview, but had been doing his research the last week.
He said he was quite excited by the role.
Davey comes to the Cobras having been at Banyule in the Northern Football League the last two yeas.
In that time, they won a division 3 premiership and then played division 2 finals this year.
Davey said purely now living so far away and Banyule needing someone who could commit full time to the role, he decided it was the best decision for everyone that he stepped down.
Having helped his last two sides come from the bottom of the ladder and helping them move up the ladder, he’s got a different challenge at the Cobras.
While they finished fifth this year, the Cobras had played off in the last two grand finals and arguably has one of the better lists in the competition.
“With the calibre of players and coming off grand finals and premierships, it is a new challenge for me,” he said.
“I want the high expectations. I’m really impressed with what they have done as a club.”
Sutherland said Davey came highly recommended.
“He was super impressive in the interview,” he said.
“He came as a recommendation from someone I knew. He wasn’t even looking our way when we got in touch with him.
“His attitude and enthusiasm and how he would like the team to play is really good.
“He came recommended from both the clubs he’d been at and that’s the best recommendation you can get.”
Sutherland said with the coaching appointment out of the way, he expected the player signings to start flowing in.
He said he was confident there wouldn’t be many changes to the side that was knocked out in the first week of the finals.
“Most will be signed in the near future,” he said.
“The club is really settled off field and a very stable club. The only think we weren’t happy about is how it went on field [with the seniors].
“We didn’t achieve what we thought we should have achieved.”
