Max Rooke signs with Casterton-Sandford as coach

A struggling country football club has been given a huge boost with one of their famous sons returning to coach the club next year. Here is what we know.

Max Rooke is the new coach at Casterton Sandford.

 

A two-time AFL premiership player is heading home to where it all began to coach the team he loves.

Former Geelong midfielder and defender Max Rooke will coach Casterton-Sandford in the Limestone Coast league.

The Cats are one of two Victorian clubs playing in South Australia competitions.

The other is Murrayville, right near the Victoria and South Australia border, which last season won the premiership in the Murray Valley Football Netball League.

Rooke, who was born in Casterton, played his junior and senior footy at the club before he played AFL.

In 1999, as a 17-year-old, he played in one of Casterton’s last grand final appearances before the Cats merged with Sandford in 2013.

Ex AFL player Max Rooke, then aged 10, playing for Casterton under 14s. Picture: Supplied.

His talent led Geelong to put him on the rookie list in 2001 before he made his AFL debut in 2002.

He would play 135 games for the Cats in his career, winning two premierships in 2007 and 2009.

Now he completes the full circle.

The 42-year-old will not only coach but be a valuable asset to a team which has not won a flag in 34 years.

“Max’s knowledge, leadership and experience will be an invaluable asset to the whole club,” the club said in a statement announcing the move.

“Although primarily appointed to work with our senior coaching panel, Max will also provide mentoring to all our senior and junior football and netball coaches.”

Despite Rooke being away from home, he still kept an eye on the team.

After retiring from the AFL Rooke played one game for the Casterton Cats in 2012 in one of their final games as a single entity.

He told AFL media back then he never forgot about his home club and how special it was.

Rooke will now be hoping to use his experience in coaching to get them back to the top.

In 2011 he was a development coach at Geelong before doing the same role at Gold Coast in 2016.

From 2017 to 2020 he was also a development coach at Melbourne, playing a valuable role to their premiership success in 2021.