By Tara Murray
Heath Pritchard’s stint as Melton South coach will continue into next year’s Ballarat Football League season.
Originally appointed for 10 weeks after Ash Manning was sacked, Pritchard has been appointed for next season.
Pritchard said he had no hesitation about taking on the role.
“It was originally for a 10-week period and it was about getting to know the club and settling the ship,” he said.
“We’ve had discussions over the last few weeks and the club wanted me to stay on and I’m happy to. They’re happy with the direction the club is taking.”
He said planning for next season was under way, as the Panthers look at their playing list.
The club has re-signed captain Shaun White, Jacob Thornton-Gielen and Matthew, Brody and Billy Sullivan.
Pritchard said they hoped to have a few more players put pen to paper this week.
“We’ve got some good kids and now we’ll start to look at recruiting,” he said.
“We’ve started re-signing guys and we’ll look to get the rest in the next week.
“We’ll look at the local blokes first. Then we’ll identify other guys that can help us and push us up the ladder.”
Pritchard said he had seen massive improvement in his time at the club, even if results did not reflect it.
He said they had been more competitive and should have had wins against Sunbury Lions and North Ballarat City.
Injuries weren’t helping the Melton South cause, with 15 of the side’s best 22 missing at the weekend.
On Saturday, the side lost to ladder leader East Point 17.22 (124)-8.9 (57).
Pritchard said the second quarter had been the side’s undoing.
“Last time we lost to East Point, we lost by 22 goals; this time it was 10 goals,” he said. “It was one poor quarter that let us down, which is disappointing. It was even stevens for the rest of the game.
“The effort and willingness is there and I can’t fault that. I’m more than happy with the effort and what we are trying to teach them.”
Ryan Holzer kicked three goals, the only multiple goal scorer for the Panthers.
Pritchard said Mark Lynch and Dale Houghton had good games, while Dylan Clake and Will Thornton-Gielen played well in different roles.
In other results, Melton defeated Sebastopol 7.9 (51)-4.11 (35), while Darley beat Redan 11.16 (82)-10.6 (66).
