Gippsland league: Anthony Robbins appointed coach of Maffra
With Gippsland football great Wayne Butcher retiring, the Eagles have turned to one of his trusted assistants to take over.
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Anthony Robbins has done just about everything at Maffra.
He played 159 senior games.
He coached the reserves.
He coached the Under 18s.
He was an assistant coach of the seniors.
He was chairman of selectors.
And Robbins was football manager too.
Now comes his most senior position and his greatest challenge: senior coach of the Gippsland league club.
And it’s fair to say Robbins, 54, has rather big boots to fill. He’s taking over from Gippy football and Maffra legend Wayne Butcher, who coached the Eagles to five premierships in two stints.
Butcher played more than 200 games for the club and after a successful run at Boisdale-Briagolong he returned as senior coach of Maffra in 2002 and masterminded three consecutive flags.
Going for four in a row, the Eagles, on a 45-game winning streak, were famously knocked over by Traralgon.
Butcher stood down but returned in 2014. Flags followed in 2016 and ’19, and there were grand final losses to Leongatha in 2017 and ’18 as the clubs squared off in four deciders on the hop.
Maffra finished seventh this year, the only time in Butcher’s long career that his team had missed finals.
He retired with the remarkable record of 168 wins – 17 of them in finals – from 212 games.
As Maffra stalwart Gary Pleming sees it, Butcher’s achievements place him “in the highest echelons of VCFL coaches and undoubtedly Maffra’s greatest ever coach over its long and storied history’’.
Robbins assisted Butcher in various roles, starting in 2002 as runner and on the match committee, and he said it was a “privilege’’.
He called him a “magnificent people manager’’ who had done a great job over a long time.
“Until you do these roles you really can’t have an appreciation of the time and effort that goes into it,’’ Robbins said.
Robbins laughed when asked how many people had told him since his appointment that he had big boots to fill.
He said he could not fill them. Instead he will try to cobble together a pair of his own.
“A few people did warn me off it … they said, ‘Is this a poison chalice?’ and ‘How do you live up to that?’
“And the answer is you don’t. If you’re only going to do anything in this life and compare yourself to anyone else, most of us wouldn’t take on anything, because there’s always someone who’s gone before you and done something pretty good.
“I just said to myself, if I don’t have a go at this now I’ll never know. And if I woke up in 20 years and hadn’t done it, I’d probably be disappointed. I think Mark Twain said that in 20 years’ time you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the things you did.’’
Robbins played with Butcher, entering the senior team a couple of years after his uncle, former Richmond player Graham Robbins, had coached the club.
They are close, and Butcher’s advice to Robbins was simple: “Just do it your way.’’
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Robbins has had coaching success at Maffra, steering the reserves to a premiership as playing coach in 2004 and later taking the Under 18s to a grand final.
He coached the “undoers’’ for five years while carrying out other duties at the club.
Robbins, a teacher at Catholic College Sale, won’t be changing too much.
“I think we’ve got a relatively good formula that’s been passed down in terms of not only how we play but the culture of the club,’’ he said.
“It’s very strong. Some might call it a little bit old-school. I’m not intending to change a lot of that. We’ll tighten up a bit probably. Over time we’ve been able to relax because we’ve had such a settled group. Now we’ve got some younger players coming in and hopefully some new players too.
“We’ll have a bit of a go and we’ll see how it pans out. I’ve had plenty of people offer their support. It’s a collective thing, I think.’’
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