EFNL 2024: Sam Bates appointed Waverley Blues coach for 2025

It wasn’t a role the Eastern league right-hand man of several years was pursuing – but a phone call from the Waverley Blues sealed the deal for the long-time senior coach-in-waiting.

Sam Bates will coach Waverley Blues in 2025. Picture: Waverley Blues FC

New Waverley Blues coach Sam Bates admits he “wasn’t actively looking” for a senior role when opportunity knocked.

The long-serving assistant has taken the helm at the Division 2 club following an extensive coaching apprenticeship stretching across Vermont, Heathmont and Wantirna South after a 300-game Eastern league career.

He replaces outgoing Blues mentor Scott Savage who stepped down after just one season in charge.

Bates served as senior assistant at Premier Division powerhouse Vermont across the past two years and had been readying for a third.

But the goalposts shifted when his phone lit up recently from an old Wantirna South contact.

“I wasn’t aware that the club (Waverley) was looking for a senior coach and I’d given a verbal agreement to Vermont that I’d be rolling around under the new coach Matt Adolph,” Bates said.

“Ben Carboni, who’s the (Waverley) football manager … he’s a connection I had through my time at the Devils, (and) he gave me a ring.

“It sort of came out of the blue and it led to a series of other phone calls that week – it interested me big-time as soon as I’d heard it.

“It wasn’t something I was actively looking for but as soon as they started to sell the footy club to me and I got in and met the powers that be, it became more and more something I wanted to consider.

“In the end, it’s been a fairly lengthy apprenticeship and it was all pointing to one day where this was going to happen and I think the time was right to step in now.”

Bates calling the shots at Wantirna South, where he also served as development coach. Picture: Supplied

The incoming coach inherits a Waverley Blues outfit which finished the home-and-away season in second spot before a straight-sets exit from the finals for a second consecutive year.

Bates said while there was no need to “reinvent the wheel”, a contested finals brand would be instilled in the club’s bid to bridge the gap on its rivals.

“They’re itching to get going and they’re keen to make amends on last season’s finals performance – it hasn’t sat well with them,” Bates said.

“I’m inheriting a pretty hungry group … they’re very ambitious which I love.

“They’ve made finals the last two years and haven’t been able to get over the line.

“My intention is to come in and certainly not take away their strengths, but to add layers to what they already have.”

The Blues finished the season in second with a 12-6 record. Picture: Valeriu Campan

While Bates said the club had “a few irons in the fire” on the recruiting market this off-season, he’ll back the growth of an emerging list.

“We feel the platform has been laid already by all the great work the club’s already done with that under-19 Premier (Division) team from a few years ago, all starting to get into the 60, 70-game mark now,” he said.

“We feel like we’ll get a lot of natural growth from the list as well.”

Sam Bates played 305 games in the Eastern league, mostly for Wantirna South, among stops at Nunawading and East Burwood.

And after six years under premiership coach Matt Clark and Steve Cochrane at Wantirna South, a season with Nick Rutley at Heathmont and two at the Eastern league’s most successful club – Vermont – under Adam Parker, the newly-appointed senior coach says he’s ready.

“I’ve been very fortunate to work under such great mentors,” Bates, a member of Wantirna South’s 2002 premiership team, said.

“I’ll take little bits of everyone and I’ll roll out the best version I can.

“I’ve been a coach-in-waiting for a long time … fortunately, Waverley came to me and it’s all worked out well.”