'Going in the right direction': Improving footy club re-signs coach

South Rovers has re-signed Luke Kenna, 11 rounds into his first year as senior coach of the club.

Kenna's initial appointment in the off-season followed the departure of long-term coach Adam Matheson at the end of the 2022 campaign and the sudden resignation of Matheson's successor, Tim Condon, 11 rounds into the 2023 season.

Lions football manager Garry Ryan was thrilled to have Kenna commit for another year.

"(We've) got all the confidence in the world for him," he said.

"There's been a little bit of turmoil over the last few years, so it's good to get things settled. We're going in the right direction, we're heading forward."

Heading into the 2024 season, the Lions were forced to undergo a re-build following the departures of a host of experienced players.

It has been a challenging season so far for the youthful Lions but they has shown a great deal of promise under Kenna.

They sit tenth but scored impressive wins against seventh-placed Kolora-Noorat and ninth-placed Old Collegians.

"We came off a very low base," Ryan said.

"We've had a couple of good wins, we've had some bad losses as well but we've got a very young group so hopefully in the off-season we can add a bit of depth and a couple of older heads just to guide these young blokes through it.

"We're training well, we've got everything going right off the field so it's very promising."

Kenna, a teacher at Brauer College, arrived at Walter Oval after five years as an assistant coach with Terang Mortlake in the Hampden league.

Ryan said the first-year mentor was already popular with the playing group.

"It was very tough for him to come into a club where he knew nobody and the players didn't know him," he said.

"From where we started up until round 11 now, he's got a good rapport with the players and they really like him.

"One thing about it, even if we're getting beaten, the guys are putting in 100 per cent which is what we want to see. We're in a good place and that's why we wanted to get on the front foot, get him locked away so we can go hard at the recruiting at the end of the year."