Wednesday 20th February
'New' GM's in the FWL

By Paul Johns
FWL.org.uk

As sad as it was to see Jon Houston and Mario Kreiner leave the FWL it was good news to see some new GM's come to the FWL. We say 'new' GM's because both are former successful GM's in the FWL.

Ross Mather has been a GM of 3 former FWL teams, he was first the GM at Amsterdam and helped set up a successful foundation for Niki van den Berg, Mather then went to Austria for a few weeks but made a deal to move to Ohio when Mario Kreiner came back to the FWL and naturally took over Austria.

Mather was successful at Ohio and went to the playoffs twice. After finally stepping down Mather after a few seasons off from coaching has decided to take up the challenge of taking over at Barcelona. The former Barcelona GM Philip Schofield has moved to New York and Mather will take charge of the Dragons this season.

Barcelona were 0-14 last year but have some talent on offense, their defense needs a lot of work though and with limited draft picks this year Mather has asked Barcelona fans to be patient.

It was also very sad when Mario Kreiner admitted he was going to leave the league. Kreiner has been in the FWL twice, both seperate periods managing Austria and each time he has won the FWL Bowl. Just 3 years ago Kreiner was on top of the world as Austria won FWL Bowl XV. Last year Austria narrowly lost out on the playoffs but still had a winning record and played some great football. They had the best WR in Matthew Hatchette and discovered a gem in HB Jermaine Allen Jnr who should take over the role this year.

Taking over Austria ironically is Jason Compton. Compton was the former GM of London for many years and took the Monarchs to the playoffs 8 times in his 14 seasons with the team. He has 97 career wins and was a very successful GM but in the later years of his London reign frustration crept in as the Monarchs were constantly unsuccessful in the playoffs (something the new London GM is aware of with his 0-2 record) and the fumbling of Matt Lytle was turning Compton into a nervous wreck.

A few years away from the FWL Compton returns refreshed and takes over Austria who were his main rivals back in his first stint in the FWL. Kreiner leaves a very solid team with some quality veterans in QB Anes and WR Hatchette and a large selection of draft picks.