Jade Rawlings leaves Casey for match-day role in coaching shuffle at Melbourne

Former Sandringham player Sam Radford will coach Casey Demons for the rest of the season after Jade Rawlings was brought back to Melbourne as the AFL club overhauled its coaching positions.

Melbourne assistant coach Jade Rawlings with senior coach Simon Goodwin and assistant Brendan McCarthy. Picture: Michael Klein

VFL club Casey Demons has been forced into a mid-season change of senior coach with Jade Rawlings being called back to Melbourne’s AFL panel.

Assistant Sammy Radford will coach the VFL Demons for the rest of the season.

Casey’s players were told of the move ahead of training tonight.

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Rawlings will look after Melbourne’s forward after the AFL club overhauled its coaching positions with defensive coach Brendan McCartney moved sideways to an AFL and VFL coaching mentor role and forward-line coach Max Rooke switching to development.

In his first season in charge of Casey, former Hawk and Western Bulldog Rawlings guided the club to the 2018 grand final, where it lost to Box Hill Hawks.

He was a popular choice when announced as the VFL coach of the year.

Former Sandringham player Sam Radford is taking charge.

The Demons have three wins and six losses and are 11th on the ladder this year.

Radford is a former Sandringham Dragons TAC Cup and Sandringham VFL player, and coached VAFA club Parkdale Vultures for six seasons, including premierships in 2011 and ’12 and the 2014 grand final.

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He is also a Melbourne AFL W assistant coach and has been serving as an assistant to Rawlings at Casey, looking after the backline.

Radford is a teacher at St Bede’s College.

It’s believed Melbourne has made changes to its match-day set-up and Rawlings will return to a key role with the Demons.

Former Western Bulldogs coach McCartney is a strong figure with a robust football philosophy but, at 58, would appear on the outer.

Football manager Josh Mahoney conceded it was rare to make such significant changes mid-year but, at 3-9, there was no point waiting until season’s end.

“Our mindset is we’re not wasting a minute on getting better,” he said.

“We want to attack these last 10 home-and-away games and give ourselves the best chance.”