EFNL 2024: Duncan Jones appointed Lilydale coach for 2025

An ex-Eastern league coach has returned to the fold to lead Division 2 club Lilydale.

Duncan Jones calling the shots at Whitehorse. Picture: Valeriu Campan

A former Eastern league senior coach has returned to the fold.

Duncan Jones has been unveiled as Lilydale’s new mentor, replacing Luke McCormick who recently stood down after a three-and-a-half-year stint.

Jones, who played football with Vermont, Heathmont and Sandringham, coached the Whitehorse Pioneers from 2021 to 2022 before assistant-coaching stops at Park Orchards and Oakleigh Chargers.

He served as head of development at VFL club Williamstown this year.

Jones said Lilydale’s wealth of emerging talent coupled with healthy player numbers made the job an attractive proposition.

“Obviously they’ve had some tough years, a couple of years ago they were winless and got relegated, but it looks like they consolidated pretty well this year,” he said.

“They’ve got youth coming through – under-17s, ‘19s, which played in the finals, and reserves and seniors.

“Being a systems-based coach, you want those numbers on the track and youth coming through.

“That’s what attracted me – not having to chase players to get down on the track … it seems like a really committed group that wants to achieve success.”

He inherits a Lilydale outfit which finished ninth in Division 2 this season with a 6-12 record following a winless campaign in Division 1 the previous year.

“There’s certainly some talent there – they knocked off Heathmont twice, Croydon who are playing finals and were in games at three-quarter time against top-five (teams),” Jones said.

“There’s a lot of room for development and growth … with the systems I can bring in from Williamstown, Park Orchards and Oakleigh Chargers, discipline around structures and stoppages, hopefully we’ll start to see that organic improvement.”

Jones, who had also been in talks with other Eastern league clubs, said his and Lilydale’s visions aligned.

“A lot of our ambitions aligned on how to coach – a very defence-first attitude … it’s getting those structures right and how we move the football, where we can take a risk and when we need to play safe,” he said.

“That general understanding of what’s expected has been laid, so I’m looking to take them to another level next year with that development.”

And there’ll be no shortage of distinguished names to lean on.

“I was lucky to be in some really good programs – Dennis Armfield ran a fantastic program at Park Orchards and Ty Vickery and Jason Davenport ran outstanding programs at Oakleigh (Chargers),” Jones said.

“Justin Plapp and Jeff Andrews are absolutely fantastic with what they do at Williamstown … it’s a really good support network to reach out to and get ideas from.

“I’m just really excited to get back into coaching and see how we can stack up against some really good sides.”