It might have taken a season longer than they would have liked, but Richmond SC is back in the Victorian top-flight after a two-year hiatus.
Rick Mensick’s side clinched promotion to the NPL following a 5-0 drubbing of the Springvale White Eagles and were aided by Box Hill United’s 1-0 defeat of Melbourne Victory who subsequently fell to second place on the NPL 1 East standings.
Mensink was full of praise for the playing and backroom stuff post-game, whom he credited for getting the club in the position they are in at the moment.
“It’s wonderful elation but more so for others including the playing group and our wonderful president Dave Foster and his committee who have done some hard work to get the club here,” the head coach said.
“For me, [it’s a feeling] of relief, but also one of elation for all the hard-working people at our small football club because this is a fantastic achievement.”
Promotion to the Premier League would not have been thought possible early on in the season when the club began its campaign with a heavy 6-0 defeat away to Goulburn Valley, and were behind for 86 minutes against a youthful Nunawading City in Round Two.
But Mensink believes the squad always had belief in themselves and dismissed the slow start to the season as down to as a one-off occurrence.
“I think we also had an inner belief in ourselves that we could get promoted, even with the train wreck that occurred at Goulburn at the beginning of the season.”
“The result was due more so to a rare set of circumstances which included it being 38 degrees on the day with the air conditioning on our bus breaking down on our way there and also the Suns being in tremendous form at the start of the season.”
“I felt that the conditioning and preparation that we’d done was going to put us in good stead right up into the final round.”
“I think you need to have that inner belief no matter what’s going on until it becomes mathematically impossible and our group certainly had that.”
Mensink has been at the club since 2012 when he took over the Under 20s side and became the senior supremo following the resignation of Grant Brebner four rounds into last season.
The former Essendon Royals and Bulleen Lions Under 20’s manager however is not phased by the task ahead of him nest season and believes that the club is in good hands to survive the sometimes cut-throat environment that is the top flight of Victorian football.
“I don’t think you can win championships without fantastic administration and the administration at our club at the moment is second to none under Dave Foster’s leadership and has been absolutely superb,” Mensink said.
“He’s turned the club around from where it was which was a little bit of a basket case couple of years ago and has done an amazing job with his fantastic leadership. I have no doubt that we will compete next season.”
Promotion to the NPL also gives many of Richmond’s stalwarts a chance to play at the highest level of state-league football once more, with the likes of captain Tom Cahill and previous league winners Hamlet Armenian and Michael Catalano familiar names to many observers.
But Mensink – who was assisted this season by former Melbourne Knights 20s coach Zeljko Kuzman – paid homage to the squad’s balance with it being comprised of several experienced campaigners, emerging youngsters and players reaching the peak of their powers.
“One good feature of our squad is that we have two 16-year-olds in Ryan Lambert and Anthony Trajkoski and a 31-year-old in Liam Flynn and a good spread in between which is important for any squad,” he said.
“Our 20’s did well this year as well, particularly with the calibre of football they played [that] was the best in the league. I should also add that Victory who won it were also very good with both teams being the standouts in the competition.”
With things seemingly right both on and off the pitch, the 2010 VPL Premiers believe they are in pole position to replicate some of the success that saw Friday night games at Kevin Bartlett Reserve a regular fixture between 2006 and 2013 in the Victorian Premier League.