How new Falcons coach Dean McDonald will help struggling Karratha football franchise soar

The Karratha Falcons’ new coach hopes to continue the club’s improving form and develop a positive club culture. The Falcons have struggled in recent years, finishing outside of the top four since 2015, and last year just missed out on the finals on percentage. Dean McDonald was the assistant coach last year and has stepped up to the top role. McDonald said he had previously coached in the Avon league and was asked by former coach Craig Baker to join the club last year. “It’s one of those things that you forget how much you miss it, but once I started again the love of the game just took over,” he said. McDonald said the club ran a recruitment campaign at the end of last season to bring in local players and people from outside the region. He said the club had been seeing a strong turnout in player numbers for the pre-season. “If you build the culture, you’ll bring people down here,” he said. “The players coming in, the numbers we have at pre-season and just the attitude of some of those guys is incredible.” He said the club aimed to give the players more ownership and responsibility. “We’ve developed a playing group that’s now part of our board, so we know exactly what they want and can try and develop something that they like,” he said. “Also, having the players more involved in volunteering around the club canteen and all this sort of stuff, which is going to give them more ownership of the club, and hopefully that’s going to drive success.” After five years of finishing outside the top four, McDonald said the Falcons were targeting the finals this season. “I don’t think any club will go into the year without targeting the finals but to just miss out last year was pretty disappointing,” he said. “There was probably a game or two there that didn’t go our way.”