MPNFL 2020: Luke Forsyth takes the coaching reins at Karingal
MPNFL Division 2 grand finalists Karingal has had a change of coach, with a former Brisbane Lions-listed player taking the reins.
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As Luke Forsyth starts out 2020 as Karingal’s new senior coach, he has reflected on his time as a Brisbane Lions player, how his body kept letting him down and his new-found passion for coaching.
Forsyth, 32, will steer the Bulls this year following the resignation last week of Brendan Dunne, who has accepted a coaching job in the private school system.
Dunne and Forsyth were set to be co-coaches.
Forsyth was a star junior who excelled at national under 16 and 18 carnivals before being drafted by Brisbane in 2004.
He joined a star-studded Lions list and spent two injury-plagued seasons there, in 2005-06, without cracking it for a senior game.
Forsyth looks back on the time not with regret but positivity.
“I had osteitis pubis and just as I got drafted I had glandular fever as well,” he recalled.
“I got really homesick. I was up there to play footy and I could never get my body right.
“I played four good games in my second year in the twos. I was emergency (for the seniors) two weeks in a row. That Thursday I was probably going to get a game but I tore my hamstring with about eight weeks to go and that ruled me out. By the end of the year I’d had enough, I just wanted to get home.
“It helped me grow up. Like, I went up there as a kid and probably came back as a 20-year-old adult. I’ve got good relationships with a lot of those senior guys, we catch up probably once a year when they (the Lions) play a game in Melbourne, we go out for a beer.
“It was a great time but it’s a long time ago now.
“I’ve got no regrets. But if I look back my body probably wasn’t cut out for senior footy. I just could never get it right.”
Forsyth thought he may be able to get a second chance at the AFL but again his body failed him.
“I came back and did a pre-season at Melbourne and I got really fit and I was probably going to get a rookie spot and the same thing, my hammy went,” he said.
“I literally got in the car and went home. Didn’t speak to any one (at Melbourne) again.”
Forsyth returned to his original club Karingal for five years and then had two seasons at Somerville. But his passion for the game waned.
“I was 28 and I probably fell out of love with footy to be honest,” he said.
“I was someone who slept with a footy as a kid and I felt like I always had to deal with expectations.
“I was kind of done at 30, I just didn’t want to play any more. I had a young family so I had 12 months off and I really enjoyed getting Saturdays back and then Troy (Callahan, Karingal president) reached out and said would I be interested in coming back to the club. That’s how it evolved.”
For the past two seasons Forsyth has coached Karingal’s reserves side, and loved it.
“It (coaching) was something as I was getting towards the end of playing footy I thought about more,” he said.
“I enjoyed helping the younger fellas out and being in that leadership role but it (coaching) wasn’t something I always had my heart on.
“But when I did that first year in the twos I just loved working with the boys. When you are coaching the twos they are there for different reasons so you probably have to connect more with them than you do for the guys who get paid to play footy.
“I really enjoyed it and it kind of evolved from there.”
Forsyth said he’s been influenced by several good coaches, in particular Leigh Stewart and Wayne Spence, and plans to consult them as he leads the Bulls this year.
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Karingal has secured a late recruit, ex-Waverley Blues ruckman Matt Blair.
“He’s a really good recruit,” Forsyth said. “We probably needed a ruckman with Justin (Farrelly) and Grant (Goodall) retiring.
“To get him was a massive coup for us.”