Sturt premiership coach Martin Mattner on taking the reins of the SANFL side, staying at Sturt and why the Double Blues can get better

TWO-TIME reigning Sturt premiership coach Martin Mattner will take charge of SA for a state game next year in another show of commitment to the SANFL and improving his craft.

Sturt premiership coach Martin Mattner will coach the SANFL state team next season. Picture: Sarah Reed.

TWO-TIME reigning Sturt premiership coach Martin Mattner will take charge of SA for a state game next year in another show of commitment to the SANFL and improving his craft.

The 222-game AFL player with Adelaide and Sydney will take the reins of a SANFL representative side from Graham Cornes for a match against the WAFL at Adelaide Oval on the weekend of Saturday, May 12.

“Tom Hurley (SANFL football operations manager) gave me a call a couple of months ago and gave me some time to think about it, and it’s a pretty big honour,” Mattner said.

“The other thing was working with the elite players of the SANFL and with different people, seeing how they do things and operate.

“The program a couple of years ago included Brad Gotch and Heath Younie and Kane Cornes, so there are quality people going through there.

“I never got to play for my state so the next best thing is coaching it, so it’s a good opportunity and good for the players to play against the best as well.”

The Double Blues have enjoyed a stunning two years with Mattner in charge and this year won three flags - under-18s, reserves and league - and had five players selected in the national draft.

Although he re-signed with Sturt mid-year, Mattner said he spoke with AFL clubs at the end of the season about possible roles for 2018 but decided that for now his best challenge was to chase a three-peat in the SANFL.

“For my personal coaching, it’s been great the last two years,” Mattner said.

“Success is a good thing and I enjoyed that but the challenge is the other thing, being able to run your footy program and being involved over all the grades, it’s a great place to be.

“I didn’t hesitate in signing again but I did speak to AFL clubs and look at what’s out there.

“There were opportunities to move into the AFL system but whether it meant interstate and the timing for us to move, it just wasn’t what I thought would benefit me any better than Sturt.

“I’d signed mid-year and I said I’d make a call by late October, there were a couple of things that intrigued me but I’m happy and loving being at Sturt.”

Mattner gave his players an extra week’s break this off-season to allow them to return fresh.

“By design, it just catches up with you if you keep starting earlier every year, so I tried to give the players a good break,” he said.

“But interestingly we had a couple of senior players coming out and running and training together, and some of them felt it was too long and they wanted to get back into it so their motivation has been great.

“We’re really impressed with that and we’ve been able to keep 34 of the 42 players who played reserves and league this year, plus we’ve got eight of the under-18s coming out to senior pre-season as well.

“The program has worked well with Trappy’s (former under-18 coach Chris Trapp) kids coming through the last couple of years, the Slimmings (Steven Slimming) and Thieles (Joel Thiele), those guys playing senior footy for the club.

“We’ve also signed two new players - Sam Dunn and Rory Tagert. Sam is a 203cm ruckman and he’s a state squad player from two years ago.

“With improvement from our young guys we still feel like we’ll be around the mark again next year.”