SWFL 2022: Two-time colts premiership coach Frank Italiano to take reins of Carey Park’s league squad

Fresh off of coaching Carey Park’s colts squad to back-to-back premierships, Frank Italiano is ready to take on a new challenge with the league squad. The Carey Park Football Club recently announced Italiano is set to take over as the Panthers’ new league coach for the next two SWFL seasons as the club continues its hunt for coaches for the colts and reserves sides. Speaking to the South Western Times, Italiano said taking on the role as Carey Park’s league coach felt like a “natural progression” after achieving success with the colts team. “I’ve worked under Richie Barnard in my first year at Carey Park and then Brett Maguire and I just thought ‘why not?’,” he said. “I have a good relationship with a lot of the guys and I can see where things need to be improved and I thought it was a natural progression and might as well have a crack.” After leading the Panthers’ colts squad to premiership success in 2021 and 2022, Italiano said he hoped to bring the league team together and improve on their performance from recent seasons. “Success will come if we as a club change our attitude and prioritise the team first and put a high value on hard work,” he said. “I think if we’re doing that, we’ll be a lot more successful than we have been. “There will be a few sessions on setting our standards and getting the players to understand my game plan. “We’ll do a lot of team building but to be honest, we’re just going to do a lot of hard work and really try to get a bigger fitness base. “I think that was the key to our colts — what we might have lacked in skill, we had an abundance of fitness and it’s hard to beat a team that just doesn’t stop running. “I really just want to set the standards, build on our experience and really embed the game plan. “If we get a team-based attitude in place, we will definitely improve.” Italiano has had a long-standing association with the Carey Park Football Club, with a stint as captain of the colts team in 1998 before returning to the club to coach the club’s junior teams before taking the reins of the colts team in 2020. Carey Park finished in eighth place on the SWFL league ladder in 2022, with a 5-12-1 record. Prior to Italiano taking the reins, the Panthers had Brett Maguire at the helm during the 2021 and 2022 season, until Maguire parted ways with the club under a mutual agreement in July.