MPNFL 2021: Sorrento lets go senior coach Luke Tapscott

A former AFL player has been chopped as coach of a leading MPNFL Division 1 club. The club tells why.

Luke Tapscott coached Sorrento to successive grand final apperances in the MPNFL. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Sorrento has stood down coach Luke Tapscott after seven rounds of the 2021 season.

The Sharks made the bold decision on Wednesday.

It’s understood star forward Leigh Poholke, who is currently sidelined with a broken arm, will take the coaching reins for the remainder of the season.

Former Melbourne player Tapscott was in his third season as coach, having steered the Sharks to successive grand finals in 2018-19.

Sorrento had been hit hard by injuries this season and was in fifth spot with a 3-4 record.

Tapscott had his own injury concerns, twice doing his hamstring.

Sorrento vice-president Anthony Ring said the decision to change coaches was “strictly a business sort of thing“.

“Luke’s done nothing wrong,” he said.

“There’s been nothing done untoward. It’s strictly a business sort of thing...

“The club has made the decision to stand Luke down and take the club in a different direction for the rest of the year.”

Luke Tapscott addresses his charges. Picture: Jay Town

Ring added: “What we wanted to do as a club and what he was bringing as a coach weren’t in line with each other.

“That’s probably the simplest way to say it.

“People will make what they want of it but without going too far into it that’s pretty much it.

“We have expectations at the club and things we want to do and they weren’t lining up, to the point that the club thought it was in our best interests to stand him down.”

Tapscott joined Sorrento in 2015 after playing 48 games with Melbourne from 2010-14.

He made an immediate impact, helping the Sharks win the 2017 Nepean Division flag.

Tapscott was handed the Sorrento coaching job just before the start of the 2018 season after Tony Blackford was sacked in March. Sorrento went on to make the flag decider, only to lose to Pines by a point.