Succession plan: Daniel Gormley to take over Tunners’ top job
The experienced Shayne Sheedy will have one more season at Heatherton before making way for his new assistant coach, Mt Eliza and Dromana premiership player Daniel Gormley.
Southern
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Heatherton’s new assistant coach is also its senior coach in waiting.
With Shayne Sheedy to bow out after the 2021 season, the Tunners have brought in prominent former Mornington Peninsula Nepean player Daniel Gormley to develop him as Sheedy’s replacement.
Gormley played in senior premierships at Mt Eliza and Dromana during his long MPNFL career.
Last season he was a fly-in player for Merbein in the Sunraysia league, finishing third in the club best and fairest.
But he hooked up with Heatherton this year when Southern was the last league standing and working towards getting a season started.
Gormley is a former teammate of a number of Heatherton players, including big Ben Drake and Grant Masterson.
Sheedy had intended 2020 to be his last season as a senior coach, but of course COVID-19 intervened.
He said he was feeling like most people in local football, “keen as mustard’’ for it to resume after a year off.
“It’s going to be a transition,’’ Sheedy said. “Daniel has come on board and hasn’t coached before, but he’s keen and he’s obviously well credentialed and he seems like a ripping fella.
“We’ve had chats about how it might work. He’ll take some training drills but on game day his job will be to get a kick. What we plan regarding stoppages and how we set up, he’ll have a big influence on that. At the breaks and all that I’ll do all the waffling and flap my gums, but maybe when it gets to three or four games to go I might say, ‘Look mate, how about I take a backward step and you do all the talking?’
“But as he said, first he wants to earn the respect of the players, because it’s easier to tell blokes to do something if they see you doing it.’’
Sheedy quipped that he might be getting a divorce if he coached beyond 2021.
He said he’d had a good run at it and believed Heatherton could give the finals a nudge.
The club is working hard on recruiting and will be counting on a strong season from Josh Bennett, the ex-NEAFL forward and the son of president John.
Sheedy started as an assistant at Oakleigh District, and was co-coach of Cheltenham with Grant Pitts in 2013.
He was senior coach of the Oaks in 2015, when the club ended a 57-year premiership drought that took in 11 grand final defeats.
Sheedy crossed to Heatherton in 2018.
“I’d be hopeful to be around the finals mark,’’ he said.
“I know we’re coming from bottom spot but we’ve got a few things up our sleeve. There’s half-a-dozen blokes who haven’t signed yet but will sign … I think we’ll put a competitive side on the park.’’
Gormley played almost 200 games for Mt Eliza and received life membership of the club in 2016.
As he did the Demons described him as an “elusive and gifted half forward/midfielder’’ with pace and great goal sense.
Gormley said this afternoon he’d had coaching in the back of his mind for some time and it was a good opportunity to learn the caper under the experienced Sheedy.
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