FOLLOWING a season which saw the Dartmoor Giants fall agonisingly short in the South West District Football Netball League A grade grand final, Leesa Logan has signed on as coach for 2023 with the hope of going one step better next year.

Logan joined Dartmoor at the beginning of last season and was a pivotal part of the A grade side, which fell to Tyrendarra by just five goals in the final game of the year.

“I’m excited to be taking on the role (of A grade coach), Dartmoor had a pretty exciting year, it’s the first year that they’ve had two senior grades of netball up in the finals,” Logan told The Spectator.

“I think the A grade girls made it the furthest it had been in 45 years, 45 years ago was the last year that they actually won a grand final in A grade.”

After 10 years away from netball, Logan felt it was time to get back involved with the game last season signing with Dartmoor.

She said that looking back on it, the decision to return to the game she loved was a good one, as she absolutely loved the year and felt she wanted to stay involved with the club.

“It was my first year out at Dartmoor, it was my first year back after 10 years out of netball, so the old body struggled a little bit,” she laughed.

“I didn’t want to leave the club after only being there one year, they’ve been really great … that’s why I opted for coaching, this year I’ll be taking more of a bench coach position rather than an on-court coach.

“I just had some thoughts and ideas for the direction that I thought we could take and (at that point), obviously it was still only halfway through the year … they contacted me a week after the grand final and it went from there.”

Before Dartmoor, Logan used to play for Hamilton and spoke highly of the coaches and leaders she had learnt from during her time at the Roos.

“I haven’t had a great deal of coaching experience, but I came up through the ranks with Hamilton so have had a lot of experience playing under some really great coaches,” she said.

“I’ve been talking to (some of those former coaches) and already getting pointers and tips from them, so hopefully I can bring some knowledge, maturity and experience that can help get them (Dartmoor) over the line this time around.

Logan said the idea of being a bench coach appealed to her a lot more than playing on, with her injured knee still also troubling her.

“It’s been quite a few years I think since they had a bench coach … personally I really think that a bench coach is more beneficial than a playing coach,” she said.

“You can’t see a lot of what’s going on when you’re trying to focus on your own game as well as then trying to help out the rest of the team or point out areas that need to be worked on.”

While the team will have a pretty different looking side to last year after losing a few players who will be replaced by new recruits, the goal remains the same.

“There is still a good vibe around the club, the netballers are all still quite excited, so hopefully we can get back out there and take it one step further … we think we can do it,” Logan said.