Newtown & Chillwell U18 coach Kaine Marsh on how Frank Fopiani inspired him and his players

Newtown & Chillwell’s U18 coach played in four premierships with Frank Fopiani. Now, the late great has helped inspire players to a flag at the club his son played.

Newtown & Chillwell coach Kaine Marsh speaks to his players during the U18 grand final. Picture: Alan Barber

Kaine Marsh won four premierships with Frank Fopiani at North Shore, and the late great might have played a part in helping him secure another flag at Kardinia Park.

Marsh, who took the reins from triple Geelong premiership star David Wojcinski as under-18s coach at Newtown, met with Frank’s son, Connor, during the week ahead of his side’s grand final clash with St Joseph’s.

Fopiani, honoured with the inaugural Frank Fopiani Medal for the best-on-ground medal in the grand final, had been an assistant coach with Newtown & Chillwell before his passing and had coached Connor through the grades at the Eagles.

“It has been a pretty emotional probably month and a half. Spoke to his son Connor and asked if we can wear Frank’s armbands and we drew on that a lot,” Marsh said.

“Frank was such a bigtime performer and he just kept going and going and to be able to win it for him, and as Connor said to me on Wednesday night, he said, ‘I’ve got no doubt he will be up there watching us and it will help get you over the line’.

“As it is, fate may have been that. Just an amazing experience to be able to honour Frank who was involved in our club internally and to win, it was heavily spoken about.”

Newtown celebrate wearing FOP armbands to honour Frank Fopiani. Picture: Alan Barber

Before going on to win three premierships with East Perth in the WAFL, a young Marsh ran amok with Fopiani in the midfield during their dominant dynasty.

“It was obviously an amazing experience to be able to play with arguably the greatest player in local history, we played a lot together in the middle of the ground. I said to my guys at the club, it was really good when I come through because I played my first senior game at 17,” Marsh said.

“I told the boys that North Shore at the time was a really strong, mature team and Frank and I would just run around and giggle because he was our best player and I was the youngest player. So we would just look at each other and leave a bit of chaos behind us and all the senior mature boys would look after us and pick up the pieces.

“We had a lot of good times together.”

The ‘Fop’ black armbands wasn’t the only touch of class from Marsh.

In the rooms after his side had stolen victory from the jaws of defeat with a late set shot from Ben Pennisi, Marsh gave away his premiership medal to the team’s – and his – No.1 fan: his son, Charlie.

Newtown coach Kaine Marsh in the thick of the celebrations. GFNL U18 Grand Final between Newtown & Chilwell and St Josephs at GMHBA Stadium. Picture: Alan Barber

“I had a mid-season break in Bali, I actually went over there to play in an over-45s footy carnival. We went over for a family holiday and we actually made the grand final and he said, ‘if you win the medal, can I have it?’ and we got beat in the grand final,” Marsh explained.

“And we drove to the game this morning and was like, ‘dad, if we win can I have medal?’

“And I said ‘I don’t know about that mate’, but in my head I always knew that he was going to get it. He doesn’t miss a training session, he is there by my side with everything I do. I can’t walk out the door without him wanting to get in the car with me.

“Even this morning he got up at 6 o’clock and said, ‘dad, it is game day’. He is just so invested in it and the emotion in him when the final siren went, it is like he is 18 already because it’s like, ‘oh my god dad I can’t believe this’.”

Sure enough, when Charlie came over to Marsh as he was finishing his post-match speech, he put his premiership medallion around his son’s neck in a heartwarming moment.

“He fully understands the emotion behind it, he sees how hard they work – he trains every session with them. He does the warm-up and the boys are so good to him and look after him. He is a unique kid and I love him so much,” Marsh said.

Originally published as Newtown & Chillwell U18 coach Kaine Marsh on how Frank Fopiani inspired him and his players