Disenfranchised Hawke's Bay United coach Chris Greatholder never thought he'd return to the role but the feedback from recent focus group meetings have rekindled his interest in the job. Photo / File
Disenfranchised Hawke's Bay United coach Chris Greatholder never thought he'd return to the role but the feedback from recent focus group meetings have rekindled his interest in the job. Photo / File
It's a crystal-ball outlook but it's safe to assume the Hawke's Bay United franchise is in the process of going back to the future in its quest to find coaches to take it into the 2019-20 national summer league.
Disenfranchised former coach Chris Greatholder and spurned captain Bill Robertson have been confirmed to be among the seven who have thrown their hats into the ring for the Premiership job, after controversial mentor Brett Angell declined a franchise offer to reapply for the position last week.
Franchise board deputy chairman Andrew Huxford says four of the applicants are from the Bay.
"We had one expression of interest internationally but that's not worked out [for the applicant]," Huxford says after applications for the position closed on May 16.
He says the calibre of applicants is "fantastic" and interviews began this week with board chairwoman Paula Walker, former All White striker Marty Akers and Havelock North FC president Bruce Barclay on the selection panel.
Bay United assistant mentor Jamie Dunning has opted out of the race after earlier indicating he would have entered if Angell had resigned.
"Jamie's decided not to apply for the role but he still wants to be involved with the future Hawke's Bay United and be involved with the focus group," he says of the former franchise youth coach who took the flagship team to an emphatic 2-1 victory over Auckland City FC at Park Island in 2016-17 while Angell was serving a four-match suspension.
The focus group is an assembly of voluntary Bay football stalwarts who have a desire to rebuild the flagship team into a sustainable unit.
"The focus group, to be honest, is to try to widen the understanding of what it takes to be part of the national league and about a group of people who are passionate about football in the region," he says, adding a focus meeting will be staged on Wednesday next week to discuss recent developments.
Bay United is in the financial doldrums although Huxford has declared the franchise has re-applied for a premiership licence to "start from zero". It expects to hear from New Zealand Football as early as late next week.
In confirming his interest in the position, Greatholder says: "I've got to be honest, I never saw myself back involved but having been part of the focus group and talking to members of the football community, it's something that appeals again."
The Havelock North Wanderers mentor, who historically took Bay United to the premiership playoffs for the first time in the nine-year history of the national summer league in 2013-14, lost his perch to then interim coach, Angell, after he took a month-long break before the Christmas break of 2013.
Amid claims and counter-claims with Central Football, Greatholder lost his position entirely to Angell but continued mentoring home-grown talent at the Havelock North club where the table-topping Wanderers are on track to win the second-tier Central Federation League for the right to earn a playoff against the Capital Football premier league champions to regain their 2018 "gifted" position in the elite winter Central League next year.
Napier City Rovers coach Bill Robertson has indicated he's interested in a coaching role with Hawke's Bay United and is liaising with the franchise to see what his options are. Photo / File
Robertson, who is at the helm of defending Central League champions Rovers, also runs the academy at the flagship Napier club.
"I'm interested in the role and will continue to communicate with Hawke's Bay United and other key football people in the region," says the bloke who was captain under the Greatholder era when former All White Perry Cotton was assistant coach.
Having clinched two premiership crowns with Team Wellington, the centreback had returned to Napier in 2017-18 to lead Bay United but last summer Angell stunned the fans when he didn't re-select him. Fans claimed the player had become a scapegoat for the team who had failed to make the playoffs for the first time in the coach's then four-year tenure in the premiership.
The 2018-19 side also had failed to make the playoffs, finishing seventh and conceding 55 goals, believed to be the highest in any season and prompting fans to question if losing Robertson was a factor in such a porous defence.
According to sources, Angell didn't react favourably to anyone questioning his line-ups and certain aspects of the coaching philosophy although he didn't openly express any hostility.
However, with all the hype around a renaissance in the province, it makes sense for Greatholder and Robertson to keep the flame burning, especially in terms of continuity from the clubs through to not only the national stage but O-League and A-League as well as international duties.
With Napier Marist also becoming a breeding ground for talent, it'll be interesting to see if Angell's assertion that only one homegrown player ascending to the national league in a season is universally an acceptable yardstick of development.
As romantic a notion as it may come across as, the combined nous of the pair and Dunning should ensure stability in building a provincial platform that will eventually be representative of the region to entice spectators through the turnstiles, albeit it with two or three marquee imports to bolster their resolve and add zest to their squad.
Arguably, it'll be the closest the province will get to a Utopian state in the beautiful game.
Bay United assistant coach Jamie Dunning is taking a recess from premiership duties but the Napier Marist mentor should be in the elite equation when he's available. Photo / File
Huxford says the goal is to establish a viable brand and business that will encapsulate the culture of the community but on the flip side there is the commercial reality of sustainability.
He reveals there are three Bay applicants for the job of franchise general manager and he's among those.
"I'm a little bit in the dark from the general manager's side at the moment and that's how it should be," he says of an interview panel comprising Walker, Napier Marist stalwart Carl Hunt and Port Hill Club counterpart Kim Matthews.
It's imperative the applicants have confidence in the commercial side of it.
"Everyone's going in with their eyes wide open through the process knowing that there's a big ask ahead of us but that will have a preferred coach and general manager ... "
While the premiership coach's salary can range from $20,000 to $150,000 he has quashed any rumours of a six-figure sum. Ditto the general manager's pay pack.
The Napier City Rovers club also has applied for a premiership B licence, with the blessing of amateur governing body Central Football, as an insurance of sorts in case Bay United keels over.
