North Melbourne, David Noble: Mapping the career trajectory of the AFL’s latest head coach

He was the behind-the-scenes architect of the rise at two AFL clubs. It’s time for David Noble to step into the limelight.

David Noble has been appointed to the head coach role at North Melbourne. Picture: Michael Klein

David Noble was in his mid-20s when his two-game AFL career with Fitzroy came to a screaming halt.

They were hardly games to spruik about.

The first, under Lions coach Robert Shaw, was a 157-point drubbing at the hands of Hawthorn in 1991 in front of his North Hobart family.

The second, a week later at the MCG, was a 44-point loss to North Melbourne.

But not all coaches are born from great players.

Noble, who was taken at pick 111 in the 1989 draft from North Hobart, left Fitzroy at the end of 1991 and spent a year under Brian Taylor at Prahran in the VFA.

It was then his career and his life took a different turn.

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David Noble during his time at the Crows. Picture: Sarah Reed

Renowned AFL player advocate Iain Findlay was associated with Upwey-Tecoma, and the Outer East League club needed a new coach.

Findlay recalled this week: “I was the team manager at the Fitzroy footy club and he was at Prahran, so I went and saw him and I said, ‘listen, you come and coach at Upwey and I’ll open the doors at the AFL for you, I’ve been on the AFL tribunal for decades as the advocate’.

“I took an interest in him because he was a very presentable kind of guy.

“He would never ask a young player to do something he would never do, the way he spoke to people was very, very impressive.”

So, the 25-year-old Noble sat an interview for the job and was appointed coach the next day.

“He coached us for two years to two premierships, got the club best and fairest and the league’s best and fairest both years,” Findlay said.

So, Findlay had to make good on his promise, pushing Noble’s name into AFL circles, kickstarting a footy CV that now includes ‘Head Coach of North Melbourne’ on it.

“I went and spoke to Ken Gannon who was then the director of footy operations at the AFL,” Findlay said.

“And I said to Ken, ‘you’d want to have a look at this young fella’ and they made him the coach of the NSW/ACT under-18 side.”

CANBERRA CALLING

Coaching the 1996 NSW/ACT Rams was a unique situation.

The AFL relocated the best under 18 players in the area to Canberra to play in the then TAC Cup, and made Noble their first coach.

Among the players was a 16-year-old Cameron Mooney, who would end up winning three AFL premierships with North Melbourne and Geelong.

Mooney said he and Noble “butted heads”, but said that was more him than the Kangaroos candidate.

“He knows how important the development of young men is and he was that at the Rams in 1996,” Mooney said.

“He was hard, he was a hard coach but he was an honest coach.

Cameron Mooney was coached by Noble during his under 18 football. Picture: Nigel Hallett

“I was a stupid 16-year-old kid at the time and he and I probably butted heads a little bit at the time, but what I took away from him was unbelievable and I’ve reconnected with him a couple of times in my role working at Fox when we run into each other.

“The main story I have of David is unfortunately him sending me and a couple of guys home for underage drinking at the Rams, we butted heads a couple of times but it is not until you are older and look in the mirror and you think ‘maybe it was my fault’.”

With Mooney, Lenny Hayes and Mark McVeigh in the side, Noble continued to impress with his coaching acumen.

But whether he could become a senior coach split people’s opinion.

“I remember we were talking in the car one day,” said former South Melbourne/Sydney player Rod Carter, who worked with Noble at the Rams.

Noble in 1996 as the coach of the Rams.

A young Mooney in 1998.

“We used to do a lot of driving, with him living in Canberra and me in Sydney, and we used to drive around the NSW countryside and on one of these drives I remember him asking me, a bit frustrated, if I thought he could be an AFL coach.

“My impression back then was no, but I thought he had the making of someone who could work behind the scenes and it is really interesting how the football landscape has changed where the people behind the scenes have taken on bigger roles and are able to step into a senior coaching role.”

However, a Grand Final appearance with the Rams had Noble primed to enter the AFL coaching system.

“In his first year he took them to a (TAC Cup) Grand Final, that impressed a fair few people and then I spoke to the boys at Footscray (the Western Bulldogs) and they interviewed him and put him on,” Findlay said.

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BULLDOGS SUCCESS

At the Bulldogs, Noble was a senior assistant to Terry Wallace and the club’s reserve coach, leading them to a premiership in 1998.

Wallace said he had “full intention” of taking Noble with him to Sydney if he got the Swans job in 2002.

“When that fell through that’s when he ventured to South Australia and Glenelg,” Wallace said.

Noble and Mitch Hahn at Bulldogs training.

Former Carlton player Brett Backwell, who moved to the Bays at the same time as Noble, said Glenelg found a senior coach who was meticulous in planning before he would actually start coaching.

“He left nothing to chance,” Backwell said.

“All the ducks were lined up and then he got to coaching, he was such a good operator.

“His intellect as far as football operations and the game side of it are amazing and the biggest thing is that he just loves it.

“He’s a football person and he can talk about it all day.”

After two years at Glenelg, Adelaide came calling and Noble re-entered the AFL system when he joined the Crows as an assistant coach under Neil Craig.

Over the next 12 years at West Lakes, Noble became list manager and head of football, helping the Crows rebuild and return to being one of the competition’s best clubs.

“He is such a good operator and that showed with the job he did at the Crows to get them back to a powerhouse of the competition,” Backwell said.

“He will do whatever he can to make whoever he is (with) the best.”

Noble coaching at Glenelg.

And again, in 2016, the AFL came calling and lured Noble to Brisbane as part of its plan to rebuild the Lions.

Along with fellow Tasmanian Chris Fagan, who had been an assistant coach at Melbourne and then head of coaching and development, and general manager of football at Hawthorn, Noble’s time at Brisbane has coincided with the Lions’ return to the finals.

THE LIONS SHARE

Former Crows chairman Rob Chapman said Noble would have further enhanced his reputation by moving to Brisbane.

“He’s a quality human being and to his credit he has got out of his comfort zone, he moved his family to Queensland, so he’s prepared to do some hard yards to advance his career and he deserves credit for doing that,” Chapman said.

“I’m a big one for ‘get out of your own backyard’ because you learn a lot more about yourself that way, so credit to him for taking that initiative and I’m sure he’s advanced his skills and knowledge for having taken the job in Brisbane.”

It is these areas that make 53-year-old Noble an attractive proposition for North Melbourne.

Tasmanian footy legend Mathew Armstrong, who was a teammate of Noble at Fitzroy, said the two men behind the Lions’ recent rise were very similar.

“Having sat down and watched him (Noble) run coaching courses early on and all that, he was at the time really well organised, really knowledgeable and probably right up there with one of the best potential coaches that I’ve seen in terms of his ability to teach and his philosophies,” Armstrong said.

“I think that gives him just a really enormous amount of experience, he has been an administrator, he has done stuff with lists, he’s been heading up football departments, he’s done it all really.

“He’s very similar to ‘Fages’, very similar. They have the ability to teach, they have a very similar makeup.”

Chris Fagan and Noble together at Brisbane. Picture: Annette Dew

IT IS TIME

Fellow Tasmanian Hall of Fame member and Noble’s former teammate at North Hobart, where his father John was a Team of the Century player, Darryn Perry said the Kangaroos candidate was always “very dedicated” to whatever he did.

“He is similar to Chris Fagan, he’s good with people, very dedicated and very smart,” Perry said.

“He is probably a bit more reserved than Chris but he demands respect, he’s a great leader and does everything right.”

Mooney said it was time for Noble to get a senior coaching job.

“If anyone is qualified for the job now, it is him,” he said.

“You talk about guys doing their apprenticeship and he’s coached his own teams at junior level and under 18s, he’s been an assistant coach in the AFL ranks, he has been list manager, he has been a footy manager.

“You name it he’s done it, other than coach an AFL senior team, and you look at guys over the years, a lot of clubs have gone for that younger type of person and it has been the guys like Fagan and Kenny Hinkley (who have done well).

“Those guys who have done those long-serving apprenticeships, they are the best qualified people to take over as a senior coach.

“I just think it would be the absolute right appointment for North Melbourne right now, he’s got the right experience under his belt.”

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