GDFL: East Geelong set for third coach in three years after Tom Cordner-Maas announces retirement
A former Cat and premiership Swan has revealed the reasons behind his decision to retire from football at the end of the season, with the gun still chasing another local flag.
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Outgoing East Geelong coach Tom Cordner-Maas has revealed his decision to finish his coaching stint at the Eagles came “quite easy” when he decided he was retiring from playing as well.
The former VFL and GFL gun, who took over the Eagles’ top job at the end of the 2022 campaign, announced on Tuesday that he would not be seeking a contract renewal at the club for 2024.
Cordner-Maas said persistent injury woes, as well as raising his one-year-old child with his wife, made his commitment to football “pretty tricky to continue”.
“The commitment is you’ve got to be there, you’ve got to be putting in the hours with the squad to have any chance of really developing the players, and I just couldn’t guarantee that,” he said.
“Being a playing coach is also a little trickier, so when I decided I wasn’t going to play on and I was going to retire, I had to look at the playing side of things as well.
“The decision to step away for a period of time and enjoy some family life came quite easy once I decided my body can’t keep up with it all.”
Cordner-Maas spent six years in the VFL, playing 55 games in the hoops while also plying his trade at South Barwon and winning premierships while the Swans in 2009 and 2012.
He said he was still chasing premiership glory with the Eagles, with his tenure as the coach still running until the end of the GDFL season.
“I don’t think the boys had a huge reaction to the news, there’s still 10 weeks left in the season and we’re still playing good footy so I don’t think it’s hit home for the boys or me just yet,” he said.
“We obviously went through a bad stretch where we weren’t playing that well, we snuck over the line against Corio a couple of weeks ago who are a really determined group, but then we had a really good game where everything clicked for us.
“Last week was a great game where we played really well, so we’re hoping to launch that into our remaining games and seal up a finals spot.
“We never lost faith with the group, we had a few injuries to key players that hurt us a little bit, but you get a few back and things start to take shape a bit.”
East Geelong will face Anakie on Saturday.
Originally published as GDFL: East Geelong set for third coach in three years after Tom Cordner-Maas announces retirement
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