MPNFL 2018: Rye appoints Adam Kirkwood as senior coach for next two seasons

RYE has appointed favourite son Adam Kirkwood as senior coach.

Rye champion Adam Kirkwood will take the coaching reins. Picture: Chris Eastman

ADAM Kirkwood played alongside Nathan Jones at the Dandenong Stingrays in 2005.

Both went on to become Demons champions — Jones at Melbourne in the AFL and Kirkwood with the Rye Demons in the MPNFL.

A three-time senior best and fairest winner at Rye (soon to be four in all likelihood after another fine season), Kirkwood has taken on another challenge after being appointed Rye playing-coach for the next two seasons.

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The 30-year-old, a schoolteacher at Dromana Secondary College, said it was the right time to “throw my hat into the ring” after being the club’s assistant coach for the past four seasons under Josh Moore, who is moving onto a coaching role with the Stingrays in the TAC Cup.

“I’m pretty excited about the opportunity to coach the club,” Kirkwood said.

“Obviously I’ve been at the club for my whole senior career and I played in a premiership there early on. It’s nice to be able to continue the hard work Josh (Moore) put in with the young boys coming through.”

The Rye list is young and talented and Kirkwood sees a good opportunity to lay the foundations for future success, just as rivals Red Hill and Dromana did years ago and are now reaping the rewards.

Adam Kirkwood. Picture: Chris Eastman

He says the current Rye players have the chance to “create a culture and drive that culture because they’ll be the ones who will be there in hopefully five to 10 years”.

Kirkwood says his coaching style will be based on strong communication and clear instruction.

“I’m really big on everybody knowing their role, having a really simple message to the guys, to go out and execute it,’’ he said.

“With being such a young group and being a teacher I’ll probably take it from that angle and try and teach the guys how to be successful and be consistent.

“That’s how I’ll be approaching it. No doubt I’ll get emotional at times as we all do. I don’t think I’m much of a ranter or raver, really.”

Peter “Grub” Grant will be Kirkwood’s senior assistant, in a mentoring role, while former reserves coach Chad Ambrose, who is also a teacher, will return to the club to be part of the coaching panel.

Rye president Mick O’Rourke said Kirkwood was the perfect man to lead the Demons forward.

“He’s a schoolteacher, he can relate to the young ones and he’s certainly got the respect of everyone around the club … they love him,” O’Rourke said.

“And we just think he’s the right man to take us forward. He’s got a lot of good ideas.

“We’ve got a commitment from Peter Grub Grant, he’s prepared to stay to help Adam as director of coaching and his mentor. That played an important role too. Adam was keen to keep him and feed off him.”