New St Bernard’s coach Mark Riley looks to build on success achieved by former mentor Anthony Rock

NEW St Bernard’s coach Mark Riley says he will make only subtle tweaks to the game plan which helped the club break a 13-season premiership drought last year.

VAFA grand final: Old Trinity Grammarians V St Bernard's played at Icon Park. St Bernard's celebrate their Premiership. Picture: Stuart Milligan

NEW  St Bernard’s coach Mark Riley says he will make only subtle tweaks to the game plan which helped the club break a 13-season premiership drought last year.

The experienced former AFL assistant coach has succeeded Anthony Rock at the Victorian Amateur Football Association club after the flag-winning mentor ­acc-epted a role at Fremantle.

Riley, who enjoyed stints at Carlton, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Fremantle, said he shared a similar coaching philosophy to Rock.

“I worked with Rocky at Melbourne years ago, in the mid-2000s and we see football pretty similarly,” Riley said.

“I’m probably not as black and white. I’ve gone through his game plan and structure stuff and certainly won’t be reinventing the wheel. There will just be a couple of subtle tweaks.”

The Snowdogs expect to retain at least 15 premiership players, but have lost Simon Caven (Coburg), Andrew Merrington (retired) and Tom Gleeson (Strathmore). Mitch Hannon (Footscray VFL), Alex Boyse and Chris Peart (both Essendon VFL) will be aligned to the club, while young gun Ben Ronke has been training with Calder Cannons. “There’s still 15-16 premiership players,” Riley said.

“Kevin Sheedy always said after you win a premiership you need to change your team by 3-4 anyway.”

Riley said he had never contemplated coaching in the VAFA before St Bernard’s made its approach.

“I had no intention of coaching amateur football and I went and spoke to Anthony Rock about where he should live in Perth and where his kids should go to school,” he said. “They were very convincing, the St Bernard’s fellas.”

The Snowdogs hope to have Alex McLeod available for the entire campaign after commitments with Essendon VFL limited him to 11 matches last year.

Box Hill Hawks’ Xavier Dimasi and Footscray’s Josh Wallis — the brother of Western Bulldogs on-baller Mitch — will also be aligned with the club.

Riley said his years of experience would help him navigate the challenge of taking over a premiership team.

“I did it in 1994 at Claremont in the WAFL, took over from Gerard Neesham who won the premiership, and made the grand final and got rolled by Ken Judge’s East Fremantle,” he said.

St Bernard’s kicks off its flag defence against Old Xaverians on April 9.