He came, he played, he conquered

They capped off this fantastic season with the club’s first premiership in 22 years. It was a year everything came together for the club and while he would be the last to take any personal accolades instead passing it the way of teammates and committee members, much of the credit for this incredible season can go the way of playing coach Luke Webb. 

Webb came to Cootamundra with a reputation as a quality footballer and was already a premiership player with The Rock/Yerong Creek.

Wanting to add a premiership as a coach to his already impressive footy CV, Cootamundra presented the perfect opportunity. A team with an average age barely into their 20s and plenty of talent in the line-up saw Webb jump at the chance to coach our local team in the Canberra Division Three competition. 

Backed by a strong committee, he implemented a number of changes encouraging positive attitudes to training. Once the team started winning, confidence in their job grew and the season only got better. 

Having now won a premiership with Cootamundra, Webb has decided to move onto the next challenge and will not coach in 2015. 

He and his girlfriend are moving to Cairns where he has already attracted the interest of a number of clubs. Moving to a stronger competition, the change is one Webb did not take lightly, however one which will see him afforded the opportunity to grow as a footballer and a coach. 

He will be able to complete his level two coaching training which he was unable to do in the competition here. 

“I want to continue to improve my coaching and football up there is a really good standard; it will be a new challenge and I was looking for that from a football point of view,” Webb said. 

He says however he will always have a soft spot for the Cootamundra club and has not ruled out coming back in the future. 

“The whole town has been brilliant since I got there, especially the football club,” Webb said, who lived in Junee while coaching in Cootamundra. 

While winning a premiership was a dream come true for him, he said even more special when the Blues secured that trophy was seeing how much it meant to the Blues’ faithful. 

“To see how much it meant to so many people in the club made me so happy to be part of it all. There were grown men crying and blokes who had been around the club since the 70s and had been there during the tough times so to be part of giving them a premiership was pretty special,” Webb said. 

At 27-years-old Webb’s playing and coaching days are in their prime, however he says the Riverina is home for both him and his partner and they will be back. He hasn’t ruled out a future coaching stint with the Blues should the opportunity arise. 

2014 will always be regarded as season everything clicked into place for the Blues and Webb puts this down to the guys on the ground week in, week out giving their all for the club. 

“It’s been a really great year with such a young group of players, there are a heap of blokes under 22,” Webb said. 

“There comes a point in every footballers career where you mature; one minute you can play a bit of footy and you’re out there giving it a go and turning up to training consistently then bang, you find this consistency and things start to happen out there on the field,” Webb described.

“For me it was around 22 this happened and I think a lot of players hit this point in their career this season,” he continued. 

Reluctant to name names, he did point to the likes of teenagers Jarryd Cook and Luke Johnston as amongst those players who really found their feet this season and who will be players to watch in the future if they stick with Aussie rules. 

With much of the playing group from this year retained the future is bright for the Blues. They are currently in talks with a couple of coaching options for 2015 and presently it looks like the club will once again go down the road of bringing in an outside coach.