SFNL: Carlton premiership player Dean Rice will help Keysborough in 2024

A building Southern league club will have the off-field assistance of a 234-game Carlton premiership player. Here’s the role he will play.

Carlton premiership hero Dean Rice (R) will assist Keysborough coach Chris Smith (L).

When Dean Rice speaks, Chris Smith will listen.

Rice, who played 234 games of AFL including Carlton’s last premiership in 1995, will be at Keysborough in 2024 to help steer the Burras and their coaches.

And the Burras’ senior coach is eager to pick Rice’s brain.

“I laid it all bare, I would love a bit of mentoring and stuff – you can only get better,” Smith said.

“To have someone like him on board, it’s unbelievable, he will help with you know this is how the game should look, your training standards, more this, more that.

“It’s going to be so good to have someone to lean on.”

Dean Rice in action for Carlton.

Off-field, Smith said Rice will help the Burras grow.

On-field, Smith said Rice will help him maintain his composure.

“From my point of view, it’s sort of in game sort of stuff,” he said.

“At times I think I can panic and throw the magnets around trying to win – it’s about staying calm, in the moment and what I should be looking for in games.

“Training as well, we want to get some big recruits in so we want to make sure our training program at our club is more than capable and is going to lure them to the club.

“We’ve announced a 19s coach, so I think he is going to help with the junior program as well.”

Chris Smith. Picture: Valeriu Campan

After a difficult 2023, Smith said the Burras “need to bounce”.

“I think it’s huge for us,” he said.

“For us to have someone we can speak to; with everything that happened last year and the circumstances we had to deal with, to have someone of his caliber, IQ and the fact he has done everything in footy.

“That’s what it’s about – he will do a review of the club to make sure what improvements we can make.

“His knowledge of the game, we’re so lucky, it’s a blessing, you can’t hit it on the head, if he suggest something, you have to be open to changing things.

“It’s exciting because we need to bounce, we don’t want to be down the bottom of the ladder, we want to bounce back up – it’s exciting.”