Jess Sinclair appointed new Wantirna South coach in the Eastern Football League

FOR the second time in the space of a week, a 192-game former AFL player has joined the Eastern Football League Division 2 coaching ranks.

Jess Sinclair has been appointed the new coach of Wantirna South.

FOR the second time in the space of a week, a 192-game former AFL player has joined the Eastern Football League Division 2 coaching ranks.

Just days after Heath Black was announced as the new Mooroolbark mentor, his former Fremantle teammate Jess Sinclair has been unveiled as the new Wantirna South coach.

The pair’s careers have run parallel, recruited to Fremantle with the Dockers’ first two picks (Black at No. 12 and Sinclair at No. 31) in the 1996 draft.

Jess Sinclair and Heath Black compete for the ball in 2006.

The two also lived together when they were drafted by the Western Australia-based club.

Sinclair returned to Victoria in 2000 before Black followed a year later, with the duo retiring a month apart in 2008.

“I’ve been speaking to Blacky over the past couple of weeks and I often have a bit of a giggle that we both started the same year, both finished the same year and played 192 (games) each,” Sinclair said.

“It is quite amusing we’ve both ended up at Division 2 clubs coaching against each other.

“(We’re) still very close and will be friends for a long time to come.”

Jess Sinclair and Heath Black tangle with Michael Braun in a heated Western Derby in 1999.

Sinclair, an East Ringwood junior who came through Eastern Ranges, played with Northern Football League Division 1 club Heidelberg following his AFL career with Fremantle and North Melbourne.

He started his coaching career at Victorian Amateur Football Association club St Mary’s Salesian for three years from 2014 and was a senior assistant this year at VAFA premiership outfit St Kevin’s under Shannon Grant.

“It is good to get a good quality person to coach us, that is the first thing, and to get someone who is enthusiastic and committed to more modern game styles and methods of delivering that message is really good for us,” Wantirna South president Steve Draper said.

“It is nothing against our past regime but we needed that change.”

Jess Sinclair had a four-year stint at Heidelberg following his AFL career.

Draper said it was hoped Sinclair’s appointment would help reinvigorate the playing group, filling the void left by former coach Matt Clark.

“We had Clarky for seven years so we just didn’t want to go the same again — Clarky was terrific but you have to go something different to be a point of difference.

“Some of them (players) have only had Clarky in their ear since they were 18 ... I think it will be good for them and the older players to reinvigorate a little bit.”