Jackson Kornberg lands Sandringham Dragons’ coaching job

After a long apprenticeship, Jackson Kornberg has taken charge of a ‘hotspot’ region for talent. Here’s the story of his rise.

Jackson Kornberg sharing a laugh at North Melbourne AFLW training.

The story of Jackson Kornberg’s rise in coaching, from a combined junior team when he was a schoolboy to the Sandringham Dragons’ head role.

KORNBERG attended Mentone Grammar and went on to study at Victoria University, doing a double degree in exercise science and sports management. He played volleyball and cricket, and football for the school’s First 18 and Old Mentonians’ Under 19s in the VAFA. He described himself as a “little half forward who could run a bit’’. But he realised his greatest passion was with coaching and so stopped playing after his time with OM. “I put all my eggs in the coaching basket pretty early on,’’ he said.

HE HAD made his start in coaching when he was in Year 11, helping with his brother Mitch’s Under 14 Beaumaris team. A year later he coached a merged Under 15 Hampton Rovers and Beaumaris side. “We were a seconds team. We won a few games and had a bit of fun on the way,’’ he said.

PAUL Carrigan was the coach of the Division 1 Hampton Rovers team when Kornberg took on the combined side. At the end of the season he urged the youngster to apply for a role at the Sandringham Dragons. Kornberg sent off an email but heard nothing for two weeks. Carrigan told him to follow up, saying “If you don’t, you might regret it for the rest of your life’’. Dragons region manager Ryan O’Connor got back to him with the offer a minor role at the club. A decade on, Kornberg will be coaching Carrigan’s son Lachie in 2021, unless he gets drafted next week.

Jackson Kornberg got involved in coaching when he was in Year 11.

KORNBERG started at the Dragons as an assistant with the Under 14 and 15 squads and doing stats for the Under 18s, sitting in the box with coach Justin Plapp. “We struck up a really good relationship. He lives around the corner from me and he’s certainly been my biggest influence,’’ Kornberg, 27, said of Plapp, who was last week appointed senior coach of Williamstown. “Roc (O’Connor) welcomed me to the club and ‘Plappy’ gave me my start as a coach at the club.’’

IN HIS second year with the Dragons, Kornberg began to take on more duties with the Under 18s, attending training once a week, helping on match day with rotations, and moving into a development coaching role.

HIS next step was to become an assistant line coach in 2015, with the midfield. Kornberg switched to the forward line in 2016, when the Dragons won the premiership under Jeremy Barnard, who, like Plapp, encouraged him with his coaching. He was a midfield assistant again in 2017 and ’18. His time with Barnard “gave me the confidence that as an assistant coach I could work with the players and add some value to them’’. “That was the realisation that this was something I’d really like to do,’’ Kornberg said. Another decisive step came at the end of the 2018 season when, after Josh Bourke succeeded Barnard, Kornberg was appointed the Under 16 head coach and the Under 18 head of development. “That was probably the best thing I did, the Under 16s, coaching under Josh and then being able to run my own program, have to deal with list management, planning sessions and organising coaches. If I didn’t do that, I’d be in a very different position than what I am right now,’’ he said.

Jackson Kornberg counts Justin Plapp as a big influence.

KORNBERG also took on positions outside of the Dragons, linking with the Vic Metro Under 18 Youth Girls team, which won the 2015 national title. He enjoyed the experience of working under Wayne Siekman, Scott Gowans, Alicia Eva and Damien Keeping (all but Eva went on to be AFLW senior coaches). Stints followed with the North Melbourne and Carlton AFLW teams; he was in the Blues’ box for the kick-off year of the competition. “I still remember that first game at Ikon Park … a lockout, 27,000 people there,’’ he said. It gave Kornberg a good appreciation and understanding of female football.

WHEN Bourke, unable to commit to a full-time role with the Dragons, stepped down this year, Kornberg applied to replace him. “It spiked my interest, a full-time job in footy,’’ he said. “I went through the initial process, interviewed … it was a long journey, from the first application,’’ he said. With a lot of well-credentialed coaches squeezed out of AFL clubs, the Dragons’ position attracted good names. But some candidates dropped out – Torin Baker, for example, went to Carlton. The process seemed to drag; the Dragons were the last club to make an appointment.

“I WENT in thinking I’d really love to go through the process, would love to interview, if I got it I’d be absolutely stoked, if I didn’t I’d be seeking some feedback to be able to push forward,’’ Kornberg said. “As the weeks went on I thought I might be more of a chance.’’ About 2pm last Friday he received a call from the AFL’s Paul Hamilton and Dragons region manager Mark Wheeler, informing him he had the job. “It was a very pleasant surprise, to put it mildly,’’ he said. “Having been involved for 10 years, it’s a club I’ve grown to love, and I really enjoyed coaching the kids. Really grateful for the opportunity.’’ He’s aware of the standing of the position; AFL talent guru Kevin Sheehan often refers to the Sandringham Dragons region as a “hot spot’’ for talent. He’s been entrusted to harness it.

HIS FIRST task was on Monday, taking training for the girls. As with all NAB League coaches next year, he’ll steer the boys and girls teams, with assistance from Nick Moodie, Danny Byrne and Lisa “Kiwi’’ Roper. And he’ll be out to have them playing attractive football. “I’m a big believer in good offence,’’ he said. “We want the game to be good to watch and it’s incumbent on us as talent pathway coaches to try to have that, at every level the kids go and play,’’ he said. “We want to show off the kids’ strengths, have them play with flair, not constrain or constrict them, and I think that goes hand-in-hand with an aggressive offence and an exciting method of play.’’