How a love affair with Glenelg reaped the ultimate reward for humble hero
Paul Sandercock is Glenelg Football Club’s quiet achiever and unsung hero, playing a key role in the most successful era in club history, writes Andrew Capel.
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Nine years ago, the heartstrings pulled hard for Paul Sandercock.
Happy and settled at Sturt - where he had helped compile a strong playing list - Sandercock was flattered when the club he grew up supporting and played for, Glenelg, enquired about his services.
“It was tough, one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make because I didn’t want to leave Sturt, I loved it there and the people were amazing,’’ Sandercock said.
“I remember being on a family trip to Sydney and I gave myself that weekend to make a decision.
“I reckon I changed my mind about 20 times, asking myself do I stay at Sturt or take the chance to get back to Glenelg?
“In the end I thought that I’d worked with people at Sturt who were so passionate about their club try so hard to keep it competitive - people like Sue Dewing (chief executive), Jason Kilic (president) and Dave Reynolds (former board member) - and thought that I had that same passion for Glenelg and that I’d really like to go back there and try to have a similar impact.’’
Sandercock’s January, 2015, decision came after he had spent four years at Unley - the first as an assistant coach and the last three as general manager football.
In his three years in the key list management position, he helped the Double Blues rise from ninth to fourth and secured key talent that would be the cornerstone of their back-to-back premierships in 2016-17 under coach Martin Mattner.
They included star midfielder Zane Kirkwood, who won the 2014 and 2016 Magarey Medals and captained Sturt’s flag teams, key forward Kory Beard - the club’s leading goalkicker in its premiership years - (both came from Port Adelaide) and clever goalsneak Mark Evans (Norwood), who won the 2018 Ken Farmer Medal.
In a pivotal sliding doors moment, the Tigers approach to Sandercock - which came through then board member and now president David Whelan - occurred after the club was forced to sack coach Nick Stevens in the middle of the off-season for off-field indiscretions.
Then head of development and reserves coach Matthew Lokan was promoted to senior coach, paving the way for Sandercock to fill the void and be appointed head of football.
Whelan made his club-changing move after being president of Adelaide Footy League club Sacred Heart Old Collegians when Sandercock coached there for three years from 2008-10.
Sandercock’s passion for Glenelg started as a child.
He grew up in Glenelg East, just two streets behind Glenelg Oval, and “used to wander down as a kid and watch training’’.
A promising young footballer, he joined Glenelg’s junior development squads at under-12 level, where his first coach was Great of Glenelg Harry Kernahan.
A midfielder/forward, he progressed through the junior grades - another Great of Glenelg, Laurie Rosewarne, was his under-19s coach - before playing two seasons of reserves in 1984-85.
“That was the start of a great era for the club and at training I was surrounded by club greats like Stephen Kernahan, Tony McGuinness, Chris McDermott and Tony Hall and couldn’t get a league game,’’ Sandercock said.
“I played in defence at that stage and was probably fairly limited with my footy, being a little bit slow and whatever else.’’
Sandercock’s journey saw him move to play footy for SHOC.
He spent 20 years as a schoolteacher, including 10 years at Sacred Heart College, and dabbled in AFL recruiting as an Adelaide-based scout - a short stint with West Coast followed by a decade with Geelong.
Triple Cats premiership players, South Australian stars Andrew Mackie and Corey Enright, were among the key players Sandercock scouted for the club.
His coaching journey also included one-year stints with the Tigers’ and Norwood’s reserves.
His immense passion for Glenelg was, seemingly, always going to lead him home.
When he returned to Tigerland in 2015, the club was at one of its lowest ebbs, coming off a wooden spoon and being forced to sack its coach during the middle of pre-season training.
It was a slow burn back
Glenelg finished ninth in 2015, seventh in 2016 and 2017 and sixth in 2018.
But some key building blocks had been put in place, including the signing of Mark Stone as coach and the recruitment of key players, including current stars Liam McBean, Luke Reynolds, Lachie Hosie, Darcy Bailey and 2019 Magarey Medallist Luke Partington, to support great clubmen Max Proud, Matthew Snook, Chris Curran and Andrew Bradley.
The Bays remarkably rose from sixth in 2018 to premiers in 2019 - breaking a 33-year flag drought - in Stone’s second year in charge and a new culture had been established.
Coaches would change.
Stone left to join Brisbane as an assistant at the end of 2020 and was replaced by Brett Hand, who lasted two years (finishing second and fourth) before being replaced by current mentor Darren Reeves, who has the phenomenal record of winning premierships in his first two years in charge.
Sandercock, along with highly-respected commercial operations manager Kristin Jeffery, have been the club’s two constant administrators in the past decade.
The 59-year-old Sandercock has been a humble, unsung hero, overseeing its greatest winning era, with three premierships (from four grand finals) in six years, cementing his football legacy.
In the past two seasons, the Tigers have beaten Sturt and Norwood in grand finals for the first time in their history.
Prior to 2019, Glenelg had won only four premierships.
“How the club has turned things around - and it is an all-club thing, not one person - has been amazing and I’m exceptionally proud,’’ said Sandercock, who wasn’t at Sturt to enjoy the fruits of his list management labour but still gained great satisfaction from its back-to-back flags in 2016-17.
“It’s fantastic to think that when I walk away from the club I supported as a kid I can look at the history books and know that I was part of a really successful era.
“It’s a real testament to a lot of people, including the coaches, and the hard work that the players put in and the respect they have for each other and for the people who put time and effort into the club, which has made my job a lot easier.’’
Reeves described Sandercock’s role at the Bay as “unbelievably critical to our success’’.
“He is the ultimate football manager and football person and we’re not doing what we’re doing without him,’’ he said.
NUMBERS GAME
5
Points Glenelg defeated Norwood by in the SANFL grand final - its lowest grand final winning margin.
95
Points Sydney and Brisbane scored to win their AFL preliminary finals against Port Adelaide and Geelong respectively.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“One thing we spoke about is that we are a hardened football team after what’s happened in the past month and that if we could be in the contest in the last quarter we would give ourselves a real chance.’’
Glenelg coach Darren Reeves on his side’s comeback from 25 points behind to beat Norwood in the SANFL grand final.
“We stick at it, we understand the storylines that go with my position, it’s part of the job. I’m okay with that, I don’t necessarily enjoy it, but the reality is it’s part of what I do. If I can’t cope, I shouldn’t be here.’’
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley after the preliminary final loss to Sydney.
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