Damien Peverill steps down at Therry Penola due to family commitments

Growing family commitments have seen Damien Peverill step down as coach of VAFA outfit Therry Penola but he won’t be lost to the club.

Therry Penola VAFA coach Damien Peverill.

Family commitments and the toll of lockdown has brought Damien Peverill’s tenure at Therry Penola to an end.

The former Essendon star called time on his first senior coaching job after three years – two seasons – at JP Fawkner Reserve this week.

Peverill said it was time to focus on family, which meant he couldn’t give the VAFA Division 1 club and its players the time they deserved.

“I’ve got three young kids – nine, seven and five – and their activities are taking up more and more of our time,” he said.

“While they’re still happy to spend time with mum and dad, I thought I should take advantage of that and spend more time with them.

“We still want to be involved, it’s a bloody good place to be around, the kids as much as me love it, love going to training, they wouldn’t forgive me if I went cold turkey.

“So I still plan to be around in some capacity, I’m certainly not saying farewell, I want to still be involved and my family to be involved.

“Just with growing family commitments I couldn’t give the playing group the time and effort they deserve and need.”

With Melbourne’s sixth lockdown putting a premature end to the VAFA home-and-away season, Therry Penola will finish sixth for the second time in Peverill’s two completed season.

The Lions came agonisingly close to playing finals in 2019, missing the top four by percentage.

This season, lockdowns meant the club didn’t get to play PEGS at all nor strugglers Brunswick and Oakleigh a second time, seeing it finish with five wins – two games back of Prahran Assumption in fourth.

However, Peverill sees a bright future for Therry.

“It would have been great to finish the season actually playing footy.

“From a coaching perspective, it’s just been so difficult, the stop-start nature of this season in particular, making sure everyone is doing enough training.

“That’s possibly accelerated stepping aside, the last two years, if it was footy as normal it might have been a different story.

“Some clubs have been helped out by lockdowns and other teams missing games that they could have won.

“You look at the players that have played well for us this year and even back in 2019, it’s guys that are 25-26 and younger.

“Throw in a good group of under-19s for the first time in who knows how long, the club is in a good spot.

LEADER: GET YOUR VAFA FOOTY NEWS HERE

TALENT: TOP YOUNG GUNS TEARING UP LOCAL FOOTY

“The emphasis for the club I think has to be that that group of 19s comes through and sticks together for the next few years.”

Asked whether a return to coaching was on the cards in the future, Peverill was philosophical.

“I don’t know. It has been a wonderful experience coaching,” he said.

“It is a big commitment, you’ve got to weigh up the pros and cons and whether I can put the time in to do the job properly.

“When the kids are done with me I’ll weigh it up but hopefully that’s quite a few years away, the youngest is still five.”