Jason Bertacco takes over top job at Hanwood Football Club

After a successful season in charge of the Pascoe Cup side, Brian Bertolin will stand aside with Jason Bertacco taking on the head coach role alongside assistant Andy Gamble, while Jayden Torino and Jeremy Arcifa will guide the reserve grade team.

It isn't the first time Bertacco has taken charge of the Hanwood, having coached at the club during their final seasons in the GDFA competition alongside Bertolin and had success guiding the side to grand finals in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

For Bertacco, it was a case of the timing being right to get in charge of a first-grade side again.

"Brian and Anthony (Agresta) have done it the last three years and have been very successful, and I've been away from it in that time," he said.

"I had a good think about it and thought it was a good time to give it another crack."

The 2021 season was shaping up as another successful one for the club, and now Bertacco wants to build on the groundwork that is already in place.

"Brian had them on a great run last year, and it isn't about reinventing the wheel but I will come in and have a few different ideas," he said.

"They had a great half a year last season due to COVID, and the last two years have been really hard for them, but they have made finals each year, and they were going to make finals again last season, so the hunger will be there to go on another good run."

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The club had been making the most of a strong third-grade side, with a number of players making first-grade spots their own in recent years, an aspect that Bertacco will be focusing on.

"t's a massive positive for the club that third grade have been involved and that we have been able to promote them into firsts and reserve grade to get them senior football," he said.

"A few of the boys that jumped up from first grade last year took their opportunity and really cemented their spots. Now it is about backing up. It is about the young boys taking that on board and then the senior boys guiding them along."

While unsure about what the squad will look like, Bertacco knows there will be a couple of departures from the club as some of the younger players move away for university.

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