Easy decision Cobras coach extends contract deal

DENNIS Armfield can see bright times ahead at Bacchus Marsh after signing a 12-month contract extension as coach of the Ballarat league Cobras.

The former Carlton small forward and cult hero, who first signed with the Cobras ahead of the 2024 season, will now lead the club at least until the end of 2026.

He led the Cobras to four wins and a ninth-place finish in his first year at the helm and has them at 2-2 after four rounds this season.

Armfield said he appreciated the show of support from the Cobras’ committee and declared his decision to continue at Maddingley Park was an easy one.

“I’m ecstatic. It’s a privilege to coach any footy side and it’s an honour to be here. It’s been a great year and a bit,” he said.

“At the moment, we’re looking forward to hopefully finishing the year off strongly and continuing to build on what we’ve been able to start since early last year.

“It always takes a bit of time to understand where you are at, walking into what the past was and where the future is.

“We’re fortunate enough to have some great people doing some great things through both our senior and junior programs.

“Even though the results aren’t exactly flying at the moment at 2-2 – I’d like us to be a bit better than that.

“But if you are watching the brand of our football and then watching our player points and seeing how low they are – and watching a lot of our younger talent starting to play a key role in our side – it’s exciting.”

Armfield said a priority for the young Cobras moving forward was avoiding the in-game lapses that had proven costly in their Good Friday loss to East Point and round three against Darley, admittedly both premiership contenders.

“We need to make sure we don’t let teams have too long a run of momentum,” he said.

“I think we gave East Point 20-odd minutes in the third quarter and when you do that with the runners-up, they are going to do some damage to you,” he said.

“That was the difference in the end.

“But as I’ve said to the boys in every review we go into, we can show that our best footy can take it up to the best teams, as we did with Darley, where technically we should have been down by one point at half-time they trailed by seven.

“But we came out after half-time and were asleep for the first 10 minutes and they put on four goals and that was the difference in the game.

“I am very pleased with what we are doing – we just need to do it for longer.

“But that’s a great recognition of our competition and how strong it is and how even it is.”

Armfield is more than optimistic the consistency will come sooner rather than later.

The Cobras, who had a bye on the weekend, get a chance to get ahead of the ledger when they clash with North Ballarat at Mars Stadium this weekend.

They will tread warily against the Roosters, whose talent is by no means reflected by their 0-3-1 record, after they came within three points of beating top side Melton last weekend.

“Similar to us, their best brand of footy is highly rewardable,” Armfield said. “With a new coach, new ways and a few changes to their system, it takes time, but we need to make sure it’s not against us that it all clicks.”

While the on-field unavailability of high-profile recruit Zach Tuohy for all but one of the Cobras’ first four games has been a disappointment, Armfield said the club would continue to tap into the former Geelong and Carlton star’s extensive knowledge, while hoping for some better news on the injury front.

“It’s been going a bit slower than we’ve wanted – I’m not going to shy away from that,” he said.

“He played his game on Good Friday and an old injury from the AFL landscape reared its ugly head again.

“We are just using his knowledge around the club as much as possible, getting him to partner up with our young kids to make sure they can learn from him.

“We didn’t expect it to be a one-and-out scenario, but we will reassess over the bye and see where we are at and what we can do.”

Away from the football field, Armfield said the whole of the club was buoyed by the success of the Cobras’ A-grade netballers.

After going years without a victory, the Cobras, under new coach Nichole Gleeson, have won two of their first four games against Redan and East Point and finished within six goals of flag contenders Lake Wendouree and Darley.

“It’s really pleasing coming in and hearing the results after the game,” Armfield said.

“Even the losses have been against good-quality teams and only by a few goals.

“It’s great to see for the likes of president Ian McClure, Shannon Nixon, vice-president Lisa Tyrell and our committee have been able to build and put the right people in the right spots.

“It’s been phenomenal.”

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