Jarrod Sutherland and Ryan O’Callaghan make switch from star players to club presidents

Two star players who won medals in major leagues are now leading off the ground. Go behind the scenes in their new jobs.

Shepparton Swans’ Jarrod Sutherland and Mildura’s Ryan O’Callaghan share two things in common despite living hundreds of kilometres apart in country Victoria.

They won two of country football’s most coveted individual awards as players before stepping up to run the clubs they represented on the field.

Sutherland claimed the 2002 Goulburn Valley Morrison Medal and was runner-up twice in the Ovens & Murray’s Morris Medal playing for Yarrawonga.

In 2003, O’Callaghan won the Sunraysia league’s McLeod Medal by seven votes in his debut season as Mildura coach following a winless season the previous year.

The pair coached junior teams at the end of their playing careers before taking on the presidency roles, overseeing an army of volunteers and an annual turnover of more than $500,000.

The commitment is massive.

An estimated 25 to 30 hours per is spent in the background helping coaches put football and netball teams on the ground every Saturday.

“I often joke that I’ve got a part-time job which is a crane hire business we run,” Sutherland said.

“You need a lot of volunteers to run a club and a lot of people don’t understand the cost of running a club these days.

“It’s well over $500,000 you are turning over each year.

“It’s a lot of money.”

Jarrod Sutherland representing Goulburn Valley against Ovens & Murray in 2003.

The sentiment is shared by O’Callaghan, a deputy principal of Mildura’ Sacred Heart Primary School.

“It’s a big commitment,” he said.

“It’s just the huge number of volunteers who are involved from week-to-week.

“You are always thanking those people.

“You might appoint a team manager who hasn’t done the job before and you get enjoyment out of seeing them do that role and front up again the next year.”

Mildura has 23 senior and junior football and netball teams in action each Saturday.

Sutherland’s six seasons in the job has included the curve balls of Covid and major floods in late 2022.

The Swans are still playing out of temporary facilities at its Princes Park home ground and is about to start a bloc of four away matches in a row.

“If anything it’s made our club stronger,” Sutherland said.

“I’m really proud of the way the players in particular have handled what we’ve gone through.

“There has been a lot of uncertainty.

“We’ve got a great committee and when you’ve got great people helping you it’s a lot easier.

“But early days it was hard.

“We were struggling and down near the bottom.

“We are far from over the top successful presently, but we’re seeing the benefits of bringing young players through and being more competitive.

“You’ve got to enjoy doing it otherwise you wouldn’t do it.

“If it’s a chore it’s time to step away.”

Jarrod Sutherland has been president of Goulburn Valley league club Shepparton Swans for six seasons. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

As a player, Sutherland admired the contributions of the presidents at the two clubs he played for.

“At Yarrawonga, Glenn Brear was president for a long time and was well respected and a great guy,” he said.

“Robin Knaggs was president of the Swans for nine or 10 years and I had a lot of respect for what he did also.

“They both had the club’s interests at heart.”

O’Callaghan grew up on the family farm near Ouyen and saw first hand the importance of volunteering when his parents took on leadership roles in sporting clubs and community groups.

His uncle Denis O’Callaghan also came off a nearby Mallee farm and played in the back pocket in Collingwood’s losing 1970 grand final to Carlton.

O’Callaghan played for the Bendigo Pioneers and Bendigo Diggers before taking on the Mildura coaching job in 2003.

Ryan O’Callaghan, left, playing for Mildura against Red Cliffs in 2015. Picture: Glenn Milne

An off-field return came in similar circumstances to when he arrived at the club soon after completing his teaching degree.

“Our senior team wasn’t travelling overly well at the time,” he said.

“We were a fairly new committee.

“We started from the start and got some really enthusiastic people involved.

“In the back of your mind when I was coaching you had an understanding of the workload of a president and what was going on.

“But at the same time you were very focused on senior footy.

“We’ve just been around it forever.

“My two boys have been in footy changerooms since they could walk.”

As presidents, the pursuit of a senior premiership remains a driving force for Sutherland and O’Callaghan.

Shepparton Swans and Mildura are well placed for finals approaching the halfway mark of the season.

A flag eluded Sutherland as a player at the Swans and Yarrawonga, but O’Callaghan played in Mildura’s most recent flag in 2007 when the Demons ended a 25-year premiership drought.

Originally published as Jarrod Sutherland and Ryan O’Callaghan make switch from star players to club presidents