EFNL 2026: Outer East premiership coach Brendan Donovan to serve as Rowville senior assistant
Not long after finishing up one of Outer East’s most successful coaching tenures of the past decade, a highly-respected mentor has found his next home in the Eastern league. He opens up on the move ...
AFTER a decade of moving the magnets as a senior coach, Brendan Donovan is “looking forward to being a bit uncomfortable” in his new role.
The longstanding Outer East premiership coach will flank Rowville mentor Ben Wise as senior assistant in the Eastern league’s ruthless Premier Division next season.
Donovan, who finished his second stint at Woori Yallock in September following back-to-back preliminary finals in Outer East’s top-flight, felt the time was right to step away from the rigours of senior coaching.
The widely-respected mentor’s eight-year stay at Olinda-Ferny Creek took in the highs of a premiership in 2017 among multiple finals campaigns – and a gong as the Eastern Region Coach of the Year in ’16.
With no prior connection to Rowville, Donovan took the plunge.
“It’s a pretty taxing job, 10 years of being a senior coach,” he said.
“I felt the list at Woori needed a bit of a reboot and I’ve always wanted to think of the club first. I was happy to finish up at the end of the year and I really wasn’t too sure what I was going to do.
“As the weeks went on, I felt I wanted to stay in footy and I saw the Rowville job pop up.
“It was a nervous couple of weeks waiting to see if I got the job, but I’m rapt. It’s bloody exciting.”
He’s relishing a “fresh start”.
“It’s interesting walking into a pretty talented and driven group where you don’t know many names and only hear of reputations,” Donovan said.
“I feel like I’ll have to bring the best out of myself to be the best support to Ben, the coaching group and the players. The fresh look brings different conversations.”
A self-confessed “footy nuffy”, Donovan would pore over the neighbouring league’s results week by week – even keeping abreast of who was shooting the lights out in the reserves.
“I’m really looking forward to being a bit uncomfortable and learning what Premier league footy is about,” he said.
“Premier is such a crazy division – every club this year would be thinking of finals and you’ve probably got six or seven clubs who would be genuinely thinking of a top-three position.”
And as Donovan put simply: “There’s a lot of things that attracted me” to Seebeck Oval – including working under premiership coach Ben Wise, who has impressed the well-travelled mentor.
“I feel really aligned with the way Ben talks about footy already, and my role is to support Ben and the coaches and get the best out of the players on a Saturday,” Donovan said.
“The thing that got me was the way Ben spoke about loyalty, there’s not much movement (out of) there and it feels to be a really good connection – that to me is where footy is moving to.
“I’ve only had three nights of training, but it looks like a really connected group – you can see the different age groups … if you’re going to look at the demographic of a successful era, they certainly appear to be in that.”
While he hasn’t ruled out a return to senior coaching in future, Donovan, thirsty for knowledge, declared he was keen to sharpen his craft.
“It (senior coaching) is a really challenging job,” he said.
“It’s becoming more and more outside of footy – and a lot of work is required.
“I felt like I needed to re-skill – some people would look at it as a step back, I look it as a step forward.
“(Coaching) has never been an ego thing for me, I just want to learn and be the best I can.”
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