Legendary local footy coach Rob Hyde calls time on his decorated career

A football career spanning 50 years and success almost everywhere he went, Rob Hyde brings down the curtain on a legendary coaching tenure.

Even Rob Hyde’s wife had to double check he was retiring for real this time.

The legendary local footy coach called time on his career last month and the curtain came down after Eltham’s loss in the NFL Division 2 grand final on Saturday.

It’s not the first time he’s hung up the magnets, having “retired” in 2014 and 2018.

Of course, the decision didn’t stop local clubs from testing the waters and Hyde’s wife, Pam, had to make sure.

“I had two clubs ring me up in the last couple of days asking ‘are you sure you’re retired’,” Hyde revealed.

Rob Hyde during his time at Greensborough. Picture: Stuart Milligan

“Even my wife asked me, ‘if you want to do it again, you can do it’, but no, it’s got to happen one year so it might has well be now.

“We sat down and she said ‘are you going to be home every night?’, so we might get divorced by the end of the year.

“I’ll find something to do, we might do a bit of travelling and I might go down to help a couple of junior programs, make a few suggestions.”

Hyde has enjoyed success almost every where he’s gone.

Arriving at Collingwood in 1973, the tough defender won a Copeland Trophy in 1976 and played in the famous drawn 1977 grand final and replay.

However, knee injuries forced an early retirement at just 23 after one season and one game – an elimination final – at Essendon in 1979 and his coaching journey soon began.

It started with Essendon District outfit West Coburg in 1981 – reaching the A-Grade grand final in his first season – before joining his junior club, Greensborough in 1983.

Hyde would lead the Borough to back-to-back premierships in 1983 and 1984 and returned in 2013 to win a third flag in 2014.

The 1983 flag broke a 16-year premiership drought for the club and 2014 ended a 25-year wait for a top-flight title.

Hyde ranks the later as the best of his many successes.

Rob Hyde celebrates Greensborough’s 2014 premiership with his father and son. Picture: Mark Dadswell

“I’m sitting here in my family room and on my wall is a picture of me, my son and my dad holding the 2014 premiership cup at Greensborough,” he said.

“My dad is a life member, my brother is a life member and my son was one of the captains of the premiership side, so that’s a special one.

“That was coming back after 30 years, 1984 to 2014, they’re all special but that was the really family-orientated, special one.

Hyde would spend five seasons with VAFA club North Old Boys from 1990 to 1994 and a season with Fitzroy’s under-19s before arguably his most defining role at Calder Cannons.

He would lead the TAC Cup/NAB League club for 11 seasons, reaching five grand finals and winning three premierships.

Future AFL stars including Dane Swan, Jude Bolton, Paul Chapman, Ryan O’Keefe, James Kelly, Eddie Betts, Richard Douglas and Jason and Mark Johnson would be moulded by Hyde.

His time at the Cannons proved a critical learning curve.

“My first two years at the Cannons I coached them like a local club,” he said.

“I used to yell at them and drive them and my friend, who was the general manager, said ‘mate, we try to teach them here, if success happens it happens but we’re trying to get them drafted’.

“I learnt from that and tried to teach and instruct and was lucky enough to have some super sides and a lot of kids got drafted but it was more about making sure they reached their potential.”

Rob Hyde spent 11 years as Calder Cannons coach.

His tenure was recognised with the club’s best-and-fairest medal named in his honour.

“That was pretty special, when I left after 11 years, they rang me and said we wanted to name the medal after you,” he said.

“I said you’ve got a Brownlow Medallist and all these other boys, why wouldn’t you do that, but no they said for your longevity and getting 60 or 70 kids drafted. It’s a big honour.”

Hyde remained in the elite AFL pathway after leaving Calder, coaching the Vic Country under-18s and winning a national championships title in 2010 with a team that included Dyson Heppell, Adam Treloar, Tom Lynch, Taylor Adams and Shaun Atley.

A teacher – and later principal – by trade, coaching naturally followed suit.

Yet, it might never have happened without a supportive family.

“I think so, I did my knee when I was 20 at Collingwood and retired when I was about 23, and being a teacher that led into it,” he said.

“I was lucky, the year I got married was my first coaching year – in 1981 – and we had to postpone our honeymoon because I had a practice match.

“I knew I was in for a long ride when Pam said that’s alright.

“She took stats for the first four years, she’s been fantastic, you don’t last this long if you don’t have a partner that’s willing to go along for the ride.

Retiring Eltham coach Rob Hyde. Picture: Hamish Blair

“Footy’s been such a big part of our lives, we’ve met so many long-term friends out of it.

“We’ve got people from clubs that are god parents to our kids and that we go away with, I think that’s why people play, local clubs are communities.”

Splitting time between work and footy hasn’t always worked, Hyde had an ill-fated stint as Northern Blues VFL coach in 2012 but lasted just 10 games due to work commitments.

He wouldn’t be out of the game for long, returning to Greensborough in 2013 and stepping down after the 2014 premiership.

After getting “itch feet”, a third stint followed in 2017 as the Borough implemented a succession plan with Mick Harford taking the reins in 2019.

When son-in-law Tom Snell called him to see if he’d be interested in joining Eltham in 2020, Hyde jumped at the chance.

Snell has served as his senior assistant for the past three seasons as Eltham finished the 2022 season as minor premiers before going down in the grand final on Saturday.

Hyde has no doubt the Panthers are on the right track and who ever takes the reins will have an exciting opportunity to take the club back to Division 1.

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“To be honest, we were having a beer on Saturday night, and I thought we probably exceeded expectations from the start of the year,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we just played some of our least productive footy during the finals series.

“Of course, when you finish on top and get there you’d like to win it but there’s lots of positives to take out of it for the footy club.”

With a career spanning more than 50 years it is unlikely Hyde will be lost to football completely but for now he’s happy to trade his Saturday afternoons for more time with his grandchildren.