Family ties to Sale City kick in for Shane Fyfe
It was a big step for Shane Fyfe to leave Sale and join Sale City as coach. When he did, he extended his family’s connection to to the North Gippsland league Bulldogs.
Local Footy
Don't miss out on the headlines from Local Footy. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Before he made the move from Sale to Sale City, Shane Fyfe had to run things past his mother, Leonie.
She’s a life member of Sale, in recognition of her work behind the canteen and in cooking the meals on Thursday nights.
Her son, one of Sale’s most decorated footballers, wanted to let her know he had been offered and would accept the senior coaching position at City.
“I had to ask her permission to leave!’’ Fyfe, 38, said with a laugh.
“I thought I’d better talk to mum because she’s so heavily involved.’’
It’s likely his father, Trevor, was less peeved at the prospect of him switching clubs.
He figured in the 1979 senior premiership and played more than 200 games for City. And Trevor’s father, Keith, is a Bulldogs life member.
His family ties, then, are strong at both clubs, but it was a difficult decision for Fyfe to leave Sale.
He played under-age and then senior football for the Gippsland league club, won a record five best and fairests, and served as coach from 2016-2019. His senior games tally of 272 included the 2012 premiership. He’d also played and coached at interleague level.
But after a lot of thinking he decided to drop to a district league – Sale City is in the North Gippsland competition – and have another dash at coaching.
His four years in charge of Sale had brought top-three finishes in 2018-19 but in both years they slipped out of the finals in straight-sets.
Fyfe took over at a time when the Magpies were starting to dip after a period on top: the flag in 2012, runners-up in 2013, a preliminary final in 2014, fifth in 2015.
“There was a little bit of a change in players, a transition (ahead of 2016),’’ he said. “It was good for my coaching to start with a lot of young guys. The first couple of years we finished sixth. We were on the cusp, but not quite up to it. Then we had two good years. Didn’t quite go to plan in the finals but we made some progress.’’
Sale City first approached him about coaching in 2005.
Fyfe can still remember the conversations with the Bulldog officials from that time but he wanted to keep playing in the higher league.
When City contacted him 15 years later he was focusing on his family – he has children aged seven and five – and his new position as deputy principal of St Patrick’s Primary School in Stratford.
There was back and forth between the parties for four weeks, football director Dan Bridges doing the legwork of phone calls and text messages for City.
“It was a pretty tough decision to leave,’’ Fyfe said. “I’ve played a lot of football at Sale, I’m a life member, mum and dad are involved, all that sort of stuff.
“But at 38 and running around in the Gippsland league … it’s a major league … it’s tough playing in it at the best of times. I’d got the bug back to coach so in the end I saw it as an opportunity to do something different, take up a new challenge.’’
He takes over a club that would have had its 50th year of football if COVID-19 hadn’t intervened.
City will stage celebrations for the milestone next season.
The Bulldogs last won a premiership in 2017, going back-to-back under the coaching of former SANFL star David Piasente.
Jacob Schuback succeeded him but didn’t want to go on in 2021.
With the 2020 season called off Sale City had time to rummage around for his replacement.
“We put a coaching subcommittee together and Shane was at the top of the list,’’ Sale City president Michael Clapton said.
“He’s so highly rated, not just as a footballer, but as a person. We’ve had so much positive feedback from people in the league since we’ve appointed him, along the lines of, ‘How did you pull that off?’ I’ve had many text messages going, ‘Gee, you’ve pulled a good one there’ and sort of, ‘How did you do it?’ And I’ll say it was a lot of hard work and we couldn’t be more excited.’’
Clapton said the club was thrilled the Fyfe name would be back on the honour boards.
Aside from his many achievements at Sale, Fyfe played for two years at Gippsland Power in the TAC Cup under Peter Francis, had a stint with Perth in the WAFL, and spent two years in Melbourne, when he was making a start on his teaching career. He followed some mates to Prahran in the VAFA in 2008 and then crossed to Vermont in the powerful Eastern league in 2009.
It was a memorable season for him and the club: Vermont started it badly, went on a long run of wins and ended up with the premiership. Fyfe played alongside such Eagles greats as Ryan Mullet, Kris Bardon, Matthew Greig, Ash Froud, Robbie Ross and Aaron Nummy.
“Only had the 12 months there but it was a bloody good 12 months,’’ he said. “Eleven years ago and I still remember it like that. Awesome year, awesome club to be involved with.’’
Fyfe counts it as one of his best times in football.
He thinks the same about his year coaching the girls team at St Thomas Primary School, Sale in 2018. It started with a keen bunch of girls and finished with the School Sports Victoria title.
“One of the girls said, ‘We’re got to get a footy team up’, so we got them together,’’ he said.
“A lot of them were good basketballers. I thought it would be a day out but they kept winning all the stages and won the state by a couple of points. Just a bunch of 12-year-old girls who didn’t know much but wanted to learn, and look where it got them. One of the best things I’ve done in football, that.’’
MORE COUNTRY FOOTBALL