Stingrays manager Darren Flanigan calls it quits
The respected NAB League talent manager and former league ruckman will be leaving the competition after opting to not reapply for his job.
NAB League
Don't miss out on the headlines from NAB League. Followed categories will be added to My News.
One of Victorian football’s most respected talent managers is calling it quits.
Multiple sources in the NAB League have confirmed that former AFL ruckman Darren Flanigan won’t be returning to the Dandenong Stingrays in 2021.
It’s understood Flanigan chose not to reapply for his position, as he and a number of other region managers were asked to do as part of changes to the elite competition.
All coaching positions in the NAB League are going to full-time roles.
Aside from coaching the boys and girls teams, the coaches are also assuming more responsibility in the area of talent spotting.
Region managers are being steered more towards administration.
Flanigan has a long association with the Stingrays.
MORE FOOTBALL
THE NAB LEAGUE PLAYERS INVITED TO THE DRAFT COMBINE
DRAGON MAX HOLMES A DRAFT BOLTER
He served as head of the region for 10 years before heading to China, where he helped establish the South China Football League and a talented athlete academy.
When he returned to Melbourne he took up a role with AFL Victoria early in 2013, as the VFL Academy coach and mentor.
Later he moved into the fast-growing women’s football. Flanigan was general manager of the Victorian Women’s Football League and then became the state’s female football talent manager, where his work won him much kudos.
Flanigan returned to the Stingrays late in 2018 when premiership-winning region manager Mark Wheeler crossed to the Sandringham Dragons.
“It’s a really good club. It hasn’t changed much since I left,’’ he said at the time. “A lot of wonderful staff are still around, medical staff, team managers. They were there before I got there and they’re still there now, long-terms servants of the footy club,” Flanigan said.
“It’s a really strong footy region with good footy relationships. I just want to keep working on those.’’
Flanigan’s CV also includes stints at Melbourne and Collingwood as a ruck coach.
There is increasing speculation that Geelong Falcons’ Michael Turner, another of the NAB League’s most accomplished region managers, will also be departing his role.
In the coaching ranks Josh Bourke has left the Sandringham Dragons and Darren Berwick is believed to be weighing up his future at Eastern Ranges.