Beechworth parts ways with coach Shaun Baxter after selection disagreement

The club informed Baxter on Friday morning that it wished to cut ties with him after he requested to go into Saturday's clash against Chiltern with just 18 players.

Baxter had implemented a policy which required players to train on Tuesday night to be up for senior selection each week, unless they had an agreed absence.

In line with his policy, Baxter had 18 players to select from and proposed to the club that was all he would pick against Chiltern, which wasn't well received.

"They didn't agree to it and I got the phone call this (Friday) morning and basically got handed the forced resignation," Baxter said.

"I had my back against the wall when I took the job in November and had some ideas knocked back.

"I stuck to my philosophy because I know from history the club had only been getting eight to 10 players to training during the winter and it was something I wanted to avoid.

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"If I had let that go this week and allowed three players to step in and play, I know there would have been four or five players that had been attending Tuesday's training and thought it would be easier for them not to turn up any more. Then we've gone back to the old ways.

"I thought it was a fitting weekend to do it being Anzac Day that it was time to dig deep and go out to battle.

"I had been talking to a few of the leaders and the older guys to put a plan in place to rectify the situation ahead of the following weekend.

"There's three or four players in the reserves that should be playing seniors, but haven't given me the notification as to why they haven't been turning up to training."

Beechworth president Adam Fendyk said the club was fully supportive of what Baxter was trying to do until he was adamant his only option was to field 18 players this weekend.

"From a club perspective, we came to a point where we had irreconcilable differences on the team to play on Saturday," Fendyk said.

"Shaun was making a statement to the players if you don't train, you don't get a game and we 100 per cent agree with him. However, when you have a very small list and four injuries and there's no-one else to put in, sometimes some pragmatism would help.

"We couldn't reach an agreement, so there was nowhere else for us to go.

"We 100 per cent supported Shaun in his endeavour with what he was trying to do until it came to the point where 18 players were going to take the field and that was it.

"Common sense has to prevail.

"It's unfortunate, but life goes on, the sun will come up tomorrow and we'll put the best team on the ground we can."

Brenton Surrey will coach the Bushrangers this weekend with the club to find a replacement as soon as possible.

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