VAFA: Two former AFL players join Old Melburnians in Premier
Former OM Sam Dunell and Shaun Edwards are the latest former league players to join the ranks of amateur football in 2020.
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Sam Dunell left Old Melburnians as a VFL hopeful halfway through the 2011 season.
Eight years later he’s returned to the VAFA club as a former AFL player and after an achievement-filled five seasons at Williamstown.
The 29-year-old’s career has come full circle, just as he imagined it would.
“Yeah, I always thought I’d go back to OMs at some point,’’ Dunell, the latest ex-AFL player to join the ranks of VAFA Premier, said this morning.
“I’ve worked out that the time is right. It’s the 100th year for OM’s next year, a big centenary year, and they’ve got a great new coach (Paul Satterley) and it was the right fit for me.
“I’ve still got friends from school who are involved. Josh Freezer is the captain. I went through school with him. Al Armstrong is a close friend of mine. Those two guys are still prominent down there. Chris Wisher, who’s the president, I played Under 19s with him. He’s a 28-year-old president doing terrific things.
“The club’s changed a lot since I was there, but for the better. It’s in a really good state.’’
Dunell played two years of Under 19 football for Old Melburnians, but at that stage his sporting focus was on cricket.
He played at Essendon and was in the Victorian Under 19 squad.
“I was really invested in cricket and committed to giving myself the best chance,’’ he said.
When he started playing senior football for OM, it was mainly a means to stay in contact with his mates from school.
But he rose quickly in the VAFA and decided that football, not cricket, was “my chance to go on’’.
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In 2011 he represented the VAFA team against Vic Country, and the Bendigo Bombers, then affiliated with Essendon, added him to their list just before the VFL clearance cut-off.
After the season St Kilda claimed him as a rookie. He went on to play 12 AFL games and follow his father, former Essendon defender Frank, into league football.
“That was a massive 12 months for me, to go from playing the first nine games of the year for Old Melburnians to end up at on an AFL list,’’ Dunell said.
After three years as a Saint he became a Seagull, joining Williamstown in 2015. In five seasons he played 100 games for the Towners, including the ‘15 premiership. He gained life membership of the club, represented the VFL and was in VFL teams of the year.
But there was to be no triumphant farewell from Willy. They lost the grand final to Richmond by three points.
“But we had a super year,’’ Dunell said.
“If you’d said at the start of the season that we’d make the grand final and there would only be a couple of points in it, I would have said, ‘You’re kidding’.
“The club went through a huge turnover. But we had guys come in and have a big impact. Like I said, it was a great year, but the time was right for me to move on. I always wanted to leave the VFL without having gone on a year too long.’’
Dunell is completing his Level 3 coaching and is keen to have a role at Old Melburnians under Satterley.
Old Melburnians have locked in another former AFL player for 2020 in Shaun Edwards. He played 12 games for Greater Western Sydney from 2012-13 and 12 more for Essendon from 2014-16.
Edwards was on Sydney’s books in 2017.
Doutta Stars defender Charles Lill is another notable recruit for OMs.
Lill played in the WAFL and for Essendon in the VFL.