St Mary’s confirm Anthony Vallejo as coach for 2024-25 NTFL season

St Mary’s have locked in their coach and committee set to reinvigorate the culture and heritage at the NTFL’s most successful club. Read what their intent for the new era is.

St Mary’s have confirmed Anthony Vallejo will continue as their head coach into a new era for the club led by Carol Stanislaus, the first Tiwi woman president.

Vallejo has coached the club for the past five seasons, making four grand finals and winning two premierships in that time to cement his place as the frontrunner for the role.

After an interview process he was announced the club’s coach for the next three seasons, with an option to extend an extra year after.

“It’s pretty exciting, there’s an exciting group of players and I’m just looking forward to growing this group in the next three years,” Vallejo said.

“The club is in a pretty good space at the moment, we have a new committee creating a positive environment, exciting kids coming through and a good leadership group.

“We pride ourselves on being a family club, you come here on any given day and you’ll see kids everywhere, that’s our heritage and something we always want to keep strong.”

St Mary's president Carol Stanislaus and coach Anthony Vallejo to bring new era at the club. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

It coincides with a new committee determined to follow good governance being sworn in, eager to rebuild the club’s links with the Tiwi Bombers.

St Mary’s was formed in 1952 as a club for Tiwi Islanders to call home, and it’s those ties to not just the islands but the Indigenous community as a whole that Stanislaus wants to rebuild.

Incidentally, Ted Egan who formed the club is the only surviving member of the original team, following the unfortunate recent death of Benvineto Cubillo Sr, who was a legend of NT sport.

“The club was established in 1952 when no other club, apart from Wanderers, would allow Aboriginals to play for their club,” Stanislaus said.

“I’m the first female Tiwi president of this club, and I want to bring back the culture and family we always had when I grew up in this club,

“It’s something we’ve lost over the years and I want to bring it back, because Saints was always about that culture, particularly the Tiwi connection, and we’ve lost that over the past 10-20 years.

“The Tiwi Islands have their own teams now in the Bombers, but we need to bring the relationship back, they should be our sister and brother club.

“They don’t have junior sides so we can support those pathways, especially when their kids are coming in to go to boarding school, we just want to support them any we can.”

St Mary's president Carol Stanislaus is the first Tiwi woman to run her club. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Stanislaus is no stranger to the workings of the club she was born into, and has volunteered extensively as a timekeeper, committee member and wellbeing officer among other roles.

She credited former presidents Adrian Moscheni and the legendary uncle Vic Ludwig as big inspirations on her journey, and her intentions to drive the club forward.

“I want to thank Moz for all the hard work and commitment he has put in over the past few years as president,” she said.

“Uncle Vic Ludwig was the longest serving president of this club, and of any football club in the nation, he’s a role model to me and I hope they can trust me going forward.

“I’m one for practising good governance, being transparent and being accountable not only to our members, but to our sponsors and our community as well.

“We want to make this place a cornerstone of the community, we have the bingo, we support FORWAARD and we’re also going to be supporting Nightcliff Dragons rugby league.”

Dylan Landt celebrates their win in the 2023-24 NTFL Men's Grand Final between Nightcliff and St Mary's. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Stanislaus said she was proud to announce Vallejo’s tenure in the top job would continue, alongside women’s premier league coach Ryan Smith who coached the Saints women to their first grand final in 11 years.

“The men’s grand final win was fantastic, we did it the hard way, as we always do, but to beat Nightcliff was great,” she said.

“The team was captained fantastically by back-to-back Nichols winner Dylan Landt, but also Anthony who was always the frontrunner for the coaching job.

“We wanted to be transparent and advertise the role, and we copped a lot of criticism for that, but we’re so happy he has agreed to coach again.

“I would also like to mention Ryan Smith who coached our girls to a grand final, and while it was a bit sad to lose by five points the girls showed PINT are beatable and we will be back next season.”