Lara Football Club appoints former Seagulls general manager Stephen Soulsby as new football director

An embattled local football club has recruited some state league assistance following the senior team’s winless start to the season.

Lara coach Brett Henderson. Picture: Mike Dugdale

An embattled GFNL club brought in highly regarded former Williamstown general manager Stephen Soulsby during the bye as football director to oversee its senior program.

Lara appointed ex-Williamstown head of development Brett Henderson as senior coach during the off-season, signing on for two years.

However, the Cats, who finished in 10th place in 2024, are currently second last on the GFNL table, are yet to win a game and have lost all seven fixtures by an average of 155 points.

A host of players departed the club during the off-season, including bookends Dan Weigl and Mitch Day to Geelong Amateur and Bayley Cockerill to St Mary’s while Devon Smith and Shayne Stone stepped down as co-coaches.

Lara president Chris Spence told this masthead the Warrnambool product is expected to oversee the club’s senior footy program until the end of the 2026 season.

Lara recruit Majak Daw is tackled by St Albans’ Hayden Elliot. Picture: Mark Wilson

He said Soulsby, who was appointed Williamstown’s GM in 2017, would be an extra set of eyes and ears to support Henderson and his coaching panel.

Soulsby has an impressive footballing resume, appointed the chief executive of the Hampden Football Netball League at just 25 years of age.

“We wanted to bring high level experience to the club and someone whose been around clubs and had success at high levels,” Spence said.

“He would be looking for opportunities to improve the club in any ways in order to continue our journey.

Hampden Football Netball League coach Nick O’Sullivan and chief executive Steve Soulsby.

“He’s there to support the coach, he’s there to support the players, look at all facets of the footy ops area, tighten it up and show us areas in which we can make improvements.

“We believe if we get all the fundamentals right the results will come, but we are mindful we have an extremely young side.

Lara has brought in former Williamstown FC general manager Stephen Soulsby to assist senior coach Brett Henderson. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“He’s there to help us and provide that extra degree of support around Brett and his coaching team.”

It’s been nearly 12 years since the club last played GFNL senior finals, beaten in an elimination final by Newtown & Chilwell by nine points.

However, since the pandemic, Lara has won just 10 games from 72 matches.

Spence said Soulsby would play a key role in developing the club’s young list.

“It’s no secret that we have a young squad,” Spence said.

“We’ve coming from a fair way back in terms of experience, in terms of having bigger bodies and older heads that are capable of matching it with most of the other sides in the competition at this point in time.

“We’ve been encouraged, generally speaking, by the general improvement in our results.

“We’re putting a lot of kids on the park that are (aged) 20 or less, they’ve got a lot of development to go.”

Originally published as Lara Football Club appoints former Seagulls general manager Stephen Soulsby as new football director