Rob Dickfos will continue on as Sandgate Hawks senior coach in 2014.
Rob Dickfos will continue on as Sandgate Hawks senior coach in 2014.
Dickfos took the reins this year, leading his young group to a surprise seventh in the Allied Pickfords Cup.
With the Hawks moving into the newly restructured QAFL in 2014, Dickfos encouraged the club to widen the search for a new coach, but he was ultimately decided to be the best candidate for the job.
Hawks board member, Will Forbes, said Dickfos’ strong rapport with the playing group as well as his strength in developing players.
“We were happy to re-appoint Rob for the 2014 QAFL season,” Forbes said.
“We think the team performed above expectation this season, especially given the drop out of some senior players.
With a number of players under 22 this season, the Hawks exceeded expectation, proving to be difficult opponents for even the top teams.
Dickfos said he was excited to continue developing his side going forward.
“I’m looking forward to continuing the development that we started this year.”
With pre-season training set to start on November 12, Dickfos said the players could expect a tough summer.
“The boys will be working extremely hard,” he said.
“That was a key for us (last season) ,we were fit and that enabled us to compete and do the things we were needing to do.
“This pre-season will be no different.”
With a largely developing group, the Hawks coach said the focus in the coming season would be on developing his charges’ game sense.
“We really need to educate to read the game a step ahead,” he said.
“We need to make sure they’re able to think a lot quicker and position themselves and reiterate all of those things and stay a step ahead.”