Neil Balme’s journey through football’s elite level took another turn when he was appointed Collingwood’s Director of Football last month. And although his return sees him take up the role he filled between 1999 and 2006, he is still taking the time to re-immerse himself in his new environment. “It’s very exciting. It’s been a long time,” Balme told CollingwoodTV. “It was a pretty tough decision but I’m really pleased to be here. “I’m really just wandering around to see who’s doing what and how we’re going and making sure that everything’s in the right place. “It’ll take a little while before I can really make some sort of judgement on that but it does look pretty positive at the moment.” When Balme last took up residence at the Westpac Centre, Collingwood operated out of one side of the building, and the Victorian Institute of Sport was located on the other side. The players trained at the now defunct Edwin Flack Oval, the clubs membership tallied 38,038 (compared with the 80,000 of recent years) coaching panel was remarkably different and the club’s VFL team was aligned with Williamstown. “There’s been a lot of change; it takes up a lot more space. That’s the way it is,” Balme said. “It’s pretty impressive from that point of view, but the people seem to be in a pretty good place. They certainly know what they’re after, and although I’ve only been here for a short period in the lead up to Christmas where there are no great outcomes, they seem to be pretty focused.” But as much as things change, there are some constants that remain which brought a smile to Balme’s face on his first day back in the job. “Tracey O’Connor (executive assistant) is still here, and when I walked into the kitchen Ann was sitting there, and Brian was sitting there, Pricey was there, even Donny was there (Ann, Brian, Pricey and Donny are all members of the club’s support staff), so there are quite a few people and once the season gets going there will be a lot more people who have been there for a while I would think. “Things obviously change, the way we go about things changes, but footy doesn’t change all that much. “It’s a very competitive game that depends on the attitude of your players and the people more than anything else. That bit hasn’t changed.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 08:31:30 +0000
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