Premiership coach Brian Leys resigns from Adelaide Footy League club Glenunga
AN EASTERN suburbs footy club has cut ties with its back-to-back premiership winning coach just weeks after winning a grand final and promotion.
- Glenunga defeats Gepps Cross to win back-to-back premierships
- All four Rams sides make Adelaide Footy League grand finals
- Glenunga looks to another oval as junior female numbers boom
- AFL heroes join forces at Glenunga Football Club
GLENUNGA has cut ties with back-to-back premiership coach Brian Leys just weeks after winning the division four flag.
Leys, a four-time SANFL flag winner with Port Adelaide, leaves the Rams after three years, during which he has taken them from the fifth tier to the third.
The former Port Magpies general manager told the Eastern Courier Messenger this week there were “many reasons” he and Glenunga had chosen to end his tenure.
Leys was contracted for next season.
“The club and I are going in different directions and have different views and thoughts on the way the club should go,” Leys, who played 110 games with Richmond and 86 with Port Adelaide, said.
“I’m fairly demanding as a coach to get things right with team values and culture.
“The great thing about footy is not everyone agrees with everyone – we all have our different views.
“Not everyone is going to agree with my coaching style.
“I have my thoughts on things and it’s in my nature to push back when people don’t agree.
“I don’t leave with any animosity.”
Leys joined Glenunga in 2016, winning the division five premiership in his second season.
The Rams then defeated Gepps Cross in the division four grand final earlier this month to secure back-to-back flags and promotion to the third tier.
Glenunga had not won an A-grade premiership since 1995 prior to Leys’s arrival.
He reflected positively on his time at Webb Oval.
“Being there three years – it was a five-year plan to get the club up to div three and we achieved that two years early,” Leys said.
“I really enjoyed it, teaching blokes to play footy, and you don’t win two premierships without having some handy players.”
Leys said he wanted to stay involved in football, but not necessarily coaching.
He also hoped to spend more time watching his three children play.
Glenunga president Simon Austerberry chose not to comment.