Olivia Ryan was announced in the top netball job just over a month ago in what is a huge move for Goorambat, with Ryan to depart a Strathmerton side she has steered to finals in each of her three years at the helm.
The decision came down to personal circumstance, with the Bats set to benefit from Ryan wishing to coach and play closer to home.
“I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity from Goorambat, their president, Kate Nolan, and the committee for being given the opportunity to coach next year,” she said.
“The move was solely based on travel from where I was, which was at Strathmerton. It's an hour to home games, and then we play across into the border of NSW as well, so some away games were well and truly over two hours’ drive.
“It was just a bit of a personal decision to move my sport closer to home. I'm self-employed, so it just made more sense probably playing locally and coaching locally.”
Ryan is backed by an impressive coaching resume, which includes a trip to the PDFNL A-grade grand final in 2022, her first year in charge at the Bulldogs, as well as successive preliminary final appearances in 2023 and 2024.
While success has been prevalent in her coaching career thus far, Ryan is excited by the prospect of a different sort of challenge when assuming the role at the Bats, which finished with a 4-14 record last season to miss finals in ninth place on the ladder.
“Yeah, it definitely does (excite me),” Ryan said of the challenge of taking the side back to September action.
“Speaking to a few of the players recently, they’re also excited to probably have a new voice in the club.
“My sister coached them two years ago I think, and they were quite successful under her, they made a semi-final I believe.
“So yeah, they’re sort of keen on having someone come in and coach (that has tasted finals). I’ve been coaching at a successful club for the last three years; I think everyone’s keen for the knowledge that I’m going to bring.
“It does give me a bit of excitement when you’ve got players already excited before preseason has started.”
Along with a wealth of knowledge, Ryan is set to bring a new coaching philosophy to the club, with one of her goals for next season to ensure that the squad is playing the game for one another.
“I’m really big on, whether we are running across all three teams or across our whole club, on having fun,” she said.
“People aren’t playing at O&K level for sheep stations, so if we can be coming to training and playing for one another and enjoying that, all of a sudden our game becomes a lot stronger because you’re showing up for the right reasons.
“You’re not showing up because of end-of-year personal success, you are showing up because you want to see your teammates succeed, you want to have fun watching your teammates succeed.
“So I’m really hoping to bring that into the club next year, that we’re playing our country sport for the right reasons.”
One of the premier defenders in the Picola league, Ryan finished tied for fourth in this year’s league best-and-fairest, while clinching the A-grade honour at Strathmerton.
But not even those personal accolades will secure her a spot in the A grade side, she explained, with the slate set to be wiped clean and all positions to be made available prior to preseason commencing.
“I’ll wait for trials before I fully commit to what our A-grade side will look like,” she said.
“You never know who’s thinking about coming out that hasn’t reached out, so I make no decisions until we’ve had a couple preseason sessions and then trials, just to be able to give everyone an opportunity, because I don’t know everyone out there yet.
“It’s also making sure that I come out with a non-biased opinion on past and current players. I’ve reached out to the whole A-grade and B-grade squad they had this year, just to check what numbers are coming back, but no-one’s guaranteed a spot until we’ve done trials.”
