Wangaratta: Country footy coaching’s new rules of engagement

VFL stars were once lured to country clubs with cash, homes and jobs. Today, they commute from the city, armed with laptops, trust, and flexible schedules.

Inducements were only limited by the imagination of cashed-up country footy clubs when they went shopping for VFL stars to coach them in the 1950s and 1960s.

In an era never to be repeated, Collingwood champion Bob Rose’s offer to coach Wangaratta Rovers was among the most lucrative.

Owning a sports store, 35 pounds per week to coach and a house for his young family to live in was too good an offer to pass up for Rose to leave the Magpies at the age of only 26.

Rose repaid the faith in spades, leading the Rovers to their first two Ovens & Murray flags in 1958 and 1960 before returning to Melbourne to coach Collingwood.

Similar recruiting stings took place in every corner of the state.

Former Collingwood champion Bob Rose leads Wangaratta Rovers onto the ground before the 1958 Ovens & Murray grand final.

Six decades later the country coaching landscape is totally different and constantly evolving.

On Sunday, Rose’s old club will play “across the road” arch-enemy, Wangaratta Magpies and the two teams have coaches who live in Melbourne and travel up the Hume Freeway on a weekly basis.

Traditionalists will scoff at the thought of the coach not living in town.

But the Melbourne-based coach model in the O&M was validated last September when Sam Murray led the Rovers to a drought-breaking flag win.

A decade earlier, Harmit Singh coached Morwell to back-to-back Gippsland flags while living in Melbourne.

Sam Murray coached Wangaratta Rovers to a drought-breaking premiership in the Ovens & Murray last season. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

As Wangaratta Rovers were celebrating their first flag in three decades, Wangaratta took the same leap of faith and signed Jason Heatley as coach fresh off a successful coaching stint at North Heidelberg.

“I’ve gone from coaching a club five minutes up the road to two hours, 15 minutes, up the road,” he said.

The former St Kilda player spent one season at Wangaratta in 1991, but kept close tabs on its fortunes before accepting the coaching job more than three decades later.

“It was the old Sunday paper score check thing over the years,” he said.

“I’ve always been interested in the club and the league.

“It was a case of opportunity knocks and we’ve made it work so far.”

Jason Heatley took over as Wangaratta coach this season despite living in Melbourne. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Heatley said coaching from afar wouldn’t work without the Wangaratta-based support cast of Damien Lappin, Dale Carmody, Col McClounan and Chris Knowles.

“If you haven’t got the fire in the belly it would be tough,” Heatley said.

“Once I commit, I’m all in.

“You need a lot of good people around you and a lot of support networks that begin with your family.

“But pre-season, post Christmas there was a lot of heavy-lifting from my end because I had to show the guys I was 100 per cent committed.

“Priority one is always to develop the home grown talent, but the reality is you also want to make it a good environment for people to come and play.”

Former St Kilda player Jason Heatley is in his first season as coach of Wangaratta. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Heatley, who works in a senior role with the Reece Group, oversees the training of a group of players who live in Melbourne and Geelong.

The hybrid set-up is replicated by the Rovers where Murray and the city-based Rovers join players from Goulburn Valley club Mansfield to train together in Melbourne.

Murray runs his own digital marketing business and flexible working arrangements ensures he can lead most Rovers training sessions in Wangaratta on Thursday nights, stay in town for work on Friday before switching into footy mode on the weekend.

Rovers football director Barry Sullivan said the remote coach model “can’t be done on a whim”.

“Going back 30 years it would never have worked because the disconnect between the coach and the players would have been too big,” he said.

“Even in pre-season we make sure our Melbourne-based players and Wang-based players get together as often as possible.

“The other thing that gave us confidence that it would work was the fact Sam had played for us for a couple of years.

“Good relationships already existed and having good relationships allow players to call Sam.

“But we tell the players ‘it’s not all about Sam reaching out to you’.

“If they want to know something, or get feedback on performance, they are encouraged to get on the phone and ring Sam.

“There has to be some collective ownership and maturity.”

Sam Murray, right, is one of the leading players in the Ovens & Murray league. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

Murray’s support crew in Wangaratta includes Kyle Raven, Josh Naish, Tom Boyd, Darcy Booth and Luke Peters.

His mum Allie is also one of the club’s trainers and his two younger brothers, Nick and Toby, also played for the Rovers before drafted by the Adelaide Crows.

“When you are successful it validates that the model does work,” Sullivan said.

“When you’ve got belief and trust, people commit and buy-in.”

Originally published as Wangaratta: Country footy coaching’s new rules of engagement