Gill McLachlan makes coaching debut for Prahran Junior Football Club’s U/13 team

He hasn’t been shy about wanting to coach his son’s footy team — but the ex-AFL boss’s latest move has rubbed some parents up the wrong way.

Gillon McLachlan has officially found his new job.

Hold your horses, we aren’t talking Racing Victoria well, not quite yet.

And it’s not as St Kilda CEO even though he was spotted at the Saints home ground of RSEA Park on Wednesday night.

It turns out the former AFL boss was attending a coaches accreditation course which he needed to complete before making his coaching debut this weekend in charge of Prahran Junior Football Club’s U/13 team.

But Page 13 understands his venture into the coaching caper has already been far from smooth sailing.

In fact McLachlan predicted as much last year when he spoke about his desire to coach his son when he gave up running the AFL.

Speaking at the Norm Smith Oration, an annual function run by the Melbourne Cricket Club, in June, he said: “I want to coach a football team.

“Not just be a runner or a fill-in coach but be a proper coach of a junior team and actually spend more time at the club with my kids.

“To see if my passion and privilege to have been able to influence the game translates to being able to influence a team of 25 boys or girls from the tough surrounds of Prahran, Toorak and Armadale.

“I want to coach a football team”. Gill McLachlan is now living his dream. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“I hope it does . . . I’m less worried about the kids than the parents to be honest.

“Either way, football and I will still be on close terms with each other, just in a different form, watching my kids experience the same joy that I first knew kicking the heads off the rose bush years ago.”

The parents’ reference was a Nostradamus moment given there have been a flurry of emails and phone calls from angry parents about McLachlan’s team selection.

Prahran’s junior program is predominantly made up of kids from surrounding private schools, mainly Melbourne Grammar where McLachlan’s kid attends, so there are some heavy hitters and big wigs connected to the club.

And as we know, the status of having your kid in the ‘A’ team and not the ‘B’ team is a very big deal for the Range Rover set.

Parents were told the club had “independent grading professionals” from outside the club come in to select the teams and that none of the coaches are supposed to be involved in the process.

Gill’s transition into coaching hasn’t been smooth sailing.

There were no grading games and kids were told initially there wouldn’t be any movement between the ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams which is something most junior clubs do to give everyone a chance to play in the best outfit.

McLachlan is entering a local footy bear pit with some parents claiming “It’s not how you play, it’s who you know at the Prahran Football Club”.

McLachlan was a very accomplished footballer in his own right as a ruckman in the VAFA for University Blues and made Carlton’s supplementary list in 1996 and 1997.

Gil might be wishing he was back in the big league, everyone know the politics in junior footy can come with much more fire. With round one beginning this weekend, let the games begin!