North Beach senior coach Bill Duckworth was honoured on Friday night when he was awarded the Community Coach of the Year award by the Australian Football Coaches Association.
Duckworth, who has coached the Beach to seven consecutive flags in a run of 10 premierships in the last 12 years, was presented with the Ken Armstrong Memorial Trophy at a function at Fremantle Football Club.
As humble as ever, the North Beach mentor said he didn’t coach to win awards and again paid tribute to both the club and the players.
“I would just like to thank North Beach for the opportunities,” Duckworth said. “I am very fortunate to be involved with such a great club, but this is due to the players. I am just the one who gets to coach a very talented group.”
Always looking for an opportunity to push the club cause, Duckworth invited anyone in the audience looking for a game of footy and a bit of fun to join the Beach for the 2011 season.
In taking North Beach to the 2010 premiership, Duckworth helped his club create a national amateur record in winning seven successive premiership. That surpassed the previous record of six set by University in Melbourne in terms of consecutive successes at senior level.