GFL: St Mary’s lock in Luke Rayner as 2024 co-coach

Incoming St Mary’s co-coach, who will take the duties over from Travis Robertson in 2024, reveals his plans to challenge the group and chase “continual improvement”.

St Mary’s has announced Luke Rayner will be promoted from an assistant coaching position into a senior co-coaching role from 2024 as Travis Robertson departs. Picture: Mark Wilson

Incoming St Mary’s co-coach Luke Rayner believes he can add to an already-dominant GFL side as he prepares to take on the head duties at the flag-contending side.

Rayner was announced as the replacement for Travis Robertson, who will leave his role at the Saints at the end of the 2023 finals campaign, with Glenn Keast signing on for one more year at the helm.

The former Bell Park, Torquay and Winchelsea head coach said he wanted to “challenge the current status quo”.

“In reality most of the key elements are in place to hopefully roll into a co-coaching role for myself next season with a seamless transition and a full understanding of the system and the principles,” he said.

Travis Robertson will step away at the end of the 2023 season, with Rayner starting his commitments heading into the 2024 campaign. Picture: Mark Wilson

“Maybe I can come in with some fresh eyes and pitch a couple of new ideas or challenge the current status quo to see if that helps with continual improvement.”

Rayner has been an assistant coach at St Mary’s the past three seasons, having joined in 2021 as a youth development coach before taking on the defensive unit in 2022 and then shifting to the forwards coach in 2023.

His line’s form has been impressive, with star forward Sam Dobson leading the goal kicking with 60 majors for the season, while Patrick Dowling booted 36 goals from 16 games and Harry McMahon slotted 27 majors in a side that was the clear scoring leader.

Rayner said he had been “pretty comfortable” coaching as an assistant to Keast and Robertson, but his circumstances had changed to allow him to take on more responsibility in the coaching box.

“I feel like from a work perspective I’ve got a better handle on where things are at so I think for me it’s a good time to take on more commitment and more responsibility,” he said.

“It’s not too far from what my current load is at the moment anyway, so I’m looking forward to the opportunity to that role next year.

“From my perspective I’m really focused on the development of our younger players and I’m really keen to bring them along as quickly as we can and expose them to as much senior football as we can.”

Rayner, who is the chief executive officer at Geelong Racing Club, is also the father of senior Saints footballer Keidan Rayner, who has played 38 senior games for St Mary’s, including last year’s premiership winning side.

His daughter Sienna Rayner also plays netball at the club, and he said it was easy to commit for three years as the coach with a close family tie to the club.

Rayner is hopeful Keast remains as a co-coach after 2024, but as it stands the two-time premiership leader will not sign an extension. Picture: Mark Wilson

“It’s obviously a really good connection in all facets of my life, it all marries up and makes sense,” he said.

“I’ve committed to the club for three years, I’ll obviously enter 2024 alongside Glenn and we’ll see how that plays out.

“Who knows what might happen at the end of 2024, Glenn might well choose to stay on and obviously that’d be fantastic if he did, but at this point in time he’s doing one more season so hopefully that gives the club a bit of stability and continuity.”

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St Mary’s co-coach Glenn Keast says the club’s new appointment for 2024 and beyond was the “obvious candidate” to take the reigns of the flag-contending side.

The Saints announced on Wednesday they were promoting former Bell Park coach Luke Rayner to the senior co-coaching role, with Travis Robertson stepping away at the end of 2023’s finals campaign.

Rayner has been an assistant coach at the club for the past three seasons and is working as the forwards line coach in 2023, and is set to take on the sole coaching role in 2025 after co-coaching with Keast in his final year at the club.

Keast said Rayner was the first choice for the club.

“We’ve got to see him first-hand over the last couple of years and I’ve known Luke for about 30 years, we played against each other back in our playing days,” he said.

Luke Rayner coached at Bell Park. Pictures: Alan Barber

“From our point of view he was one of the first people that we thought of and spoke about, and once we spoke to him and he had interest it was pretty simple.

“We were pretty excited to get someone on board with his calibre in a line role a couple of years ago, and he’s proven his worth in that capacity.

“He’s certainly added a lot of value to our players and his breadth of experience and his ability to build relationships with players is really good.”

Rayner has a strong football history, having played at Geelong Falcons before being drafted to Carlton.

He has coached football for more than 20 years, with stints at Myrtleford in the Ovens & Murray league, as well as Bell Park, Torquay and Winchelsea as senior coaches, with assistant coaching roles at the Falcons and Essendon’s VFL program.

Keidan Rayner is Luke’s son, with Keidan already a young gun in the Saints senior squad. picture: Glenn Ferguson

Rayner joined St Mary’s as the youth development coach in 2021 before shifting to a defensive line coach in 2022.

Keast said the club would likely follow the similar structure in 2024 where the two co-coaches shared senior and reserve coaching duties.

“We haven’t really discussed it, I think it’s working pretty well, it does provide some benefits to both of us,” he said.

“In terms of having that ability to step away, not necessarily step away but it gives you the chance to step back for a couple of weeks and assess things in a different light.

“I can’t see why that would change, but like anything we’ll discuss it going into next season and formalise how we go about it.”

Originally published as GFL: St Mary’s lock in Luke Rayner as 2024 co-coach