TAC Cup 2019: Tom Lonergan returns to Calder Cannons as talent manager
Tom Lonergan has returned to the club he was drafted from in 2002, appointed as Calder Cannons new TAC Cup talent manager.
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Tom Lonergan is well-placed to talk about perspective.
The former Geelong defender, who played 209 games over a 13-year AFL career, almost died after an on-field collision with Melbourne’s Brad Miller in 2006.
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The now 34-year-old had a kidney removed, underwent emergency surgery and was placed in a coma for four days as a result of the on-field incident.
Lonergan lost 17kg and it would be two years before he played another senior game for Geelong.
“The injury was something that I look back on and say, ‘look, that was a really tough time in my life’,” he said.
“Moving forward, things that do come along that are a bit difficult to get through, it’s something that I always look back on and go, ‘wow, I can get through this’.
“No matter what it is, I have got through harder things before.”
The importance of perspective is something Lonergan hopes to teach Calder Cannons’ next crop of budding AFL and AFLW players after returning to the club he was drafted from as talent manager.
“Having a setback here, whether it’s missing a squad, an injury or whatever it may be, yeah, it does hurt at the time,” he said.
“But it’s important you realise you can turn it into a positive.
“They’re some of the stories I will share with our kids over the course of the year and hopefully we can really build up not only some good footballers, but some really resilient people.
“Everyone has a setback, but they can move on, get past it and have a really good perspective on life.”
Originally from Yarrawonga, Lonergan spent one season with the Cannons while he boarded at Assumption College.
Ross Monaghan, Calder’s inaugural talent manager, got to know the teenager well while driving him from Kilmore to the club’s former base in Coburg.
“He was tall and athletic, but Tom will be the first to admit he had some work to do in terms of his workrate,” Monaghan said.
“But he certainly showed enough and when he was with us he gave us every indication he was a likely draftee.”
Now a recruiter with Sydney, Monaghan said Lonergan’s career would serve well as a road map for the players listed by the Cannons this year.
“He had to work really, really hard on his footy to get it to where he got it to,” he said.
“But he achieved the ultimate.
“I was very proud of his achievement when he did that, considering particularly the adversity he had gone through with the injury.”
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Lonergan developed into one of the AFL’s most reliable key defenders after returning from his life-threatening injury, featuring in Geelong’s 2011 grand final victory over Collingwood.
He took a year away from the sport after retiring in 2017, working for Cotton On Group in a human resources role.
“I learned a hell of a lot during that year,” he said.
“Throughout that year I also realised that my passion really does lie back in football.
“Hence, when this job came up, I thought it was perfect for me.
“I love developing the younger kids and also some other opportunities within the role are perfect for me.”
The Cannons’ pathway has developed significantly since Lonergan was drafted, thanks largely to the work of his predecessor Ian Kyte.
Lonergan was one of seven players drafted from the club in 2002, joining Bo Nixon, Brad Murphy, Cameron Hunter, Cameron Wight, Daniel Sipthorp and Ryan Crowley at AFL clubs.
With recent experience at the elite level, he hopes his understanding of the traits AFL recruiters are looking for will be beneficial for Calder’s draft hopefuls.
“The skill component or the technical component is greatly important,” he said.
“But you will find more and more clubs are looking at guys characters as well.
“Ensuring they are good people, they fit into a good culture, that’s a huge component of footy now.
“That’s something I’ll look to really ensure, the guys and girls that are currently on the list become really good people.”
Lonergan said the pressure placed on young footballers and their mental wellbeing would be among his top priorities.
“It’s something that is a lot different to when I came through the ranks,” he said.
“It’s really important, I think, that the kids have that balance in their lives and do keep things in perspective.”
Overlooking Craigieburn’s Highgate Reserve from the club’s modern offices, Lonergan speaks with enthusiasm about the opportunities which lie ahead in his new role, in particular through women’s football.
“The girls side of things is just growing, bigger and bigger every year,” he said.
“To be able to work with the kids and pass on some of the knowledge I learned throughout my career to them and build those relationships, that was first and foremost the biggest opportunity for me.”
Monaghan said Lonergan’s return to Calder was a “fantastic appointment”.
“You can’t buy the experiences that he has had in terms of being able to mentor and guide young players,” he said.
“To start with, the relocation issue, boarding and (playing) TAC (Cup).
“Trying to combine all that with studies, that’s one aspect.
“Then to be drafted to an AFL club and I think he has openly stated a number of times, that I have read with interest, that he realised that he wasn’t working hard enough.
“He’s had to lift his game to get to where he got to.”
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