Darren Holmes pulls no punches in his assessment of Yackandandah's season

Holmes labelled the Roos' 2022 campaign a failure after they failed to make finals in the Tallangatta & District League, a year on from finishing top of the ladder.

While serious injuries mitigated the drop-off to a degree, Holmes pulled no punches in his own self-assessment and insisted it would have been wrong to step aside with the team under-performing.

Jimmy Greenwood and Ben McIntosh will step into assistant coaching positions for 2023.

"We're disappointed with our result," Holmes said.

"It's not good enough and we need to improve.

"The best team we were able to put on the park still had four senior guys missing through injury.

"We had two season-ending injuries and one guy's was career-ending.

"It was tough like that but I'm not big on excuses, we still should have played finals.

"We had games there that could be won and we didn't win them.

"One more win and we played finals.

"There were three games, minimum, I could name that we stepped away from, we just went 'nah, that's too hard' and that was disappointing.

"I feel like I let the community down a bit.

"Even with our injuries, I thought we still had a finals side and that's probably what hurts the most.

"How deep we went is a different story but I thought we still had a side that should have played at least one game at Sandy Creek and we didn't so that's a fail.

"It has to be seen that way if we want to be better, if we want to get serious about who we are and beat the likes of Kiewa, Barny, these continually successful clubs, that's the way we have to think because I'm pretty sure that's how they think."

Holmes, the former Sydney and Fitzroy player, joined Yackandandah in 2019 and to say he has unfinished business would be an understatement.

"Two-thirds of the way through the season, I felt there was a lot more work to be done than I would have liked," Holmes said.

"It's incumbent on all coaches to leave the football club in a better position than they found it.

"I had a standard I thought we should have been at, where I was comfortable stepping away, and we weren't hitting those marks.

"I thought 'no, I have to stay on and see if we can get to that place.'

"It's much easier to find a replacement coach when you're playing at Sandy Creek; it's a lot harder when you're struggling to get there."

With recruiting season in full swing, it's one of the busiest times of the year for Holmes, who will delegate much of pre-season training to Greenwood and McIntosh.

"We've got some new energy with Jimmy and Ben," Holmes said.

"Ben played half of the season with a broken foot.

"Jimmy O'Connell, who came to us from Thurgoona this time last year, came runner-up in our best and fairest but three-quarters of the season, he had a broken thumb.

"He thought I didn't know about it, not that we ever discussed it, I just let it fly.

"We had some great efforts.

"We had some kids come through and do some really good things so there are positives there.

"Hamish McInnes, a homegrown talent, stamped his authority and had a breakout year and he's now a genuine midfielder.

"Bailey Glass came through and was having a blistering season until round six and did his knee and that was the end of his season.

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"Ray Farrugia never stopped working until he found a spot in the back pocket and blitzed it there, so there are some real positives

"To beat Beechworth at Beechworth, we haven't won there in 10 years and we were eight guys short that day.

"We beat them and they impressed me.

"They were an impressive football side and that shows it can be done - but it's bloody hard to do.

"Overall, though, it's a fail. You've got to mark it.

"It's a win-loss industry and it's a fail."

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