Ovens and Murray: Peter German appointed coach of Perth Demons
John Longmire’s original country club is in the market for a new coach. See where the outgoing coach of Corowa-Rutherglen is going.
Outgoing Corowa-Rutherglen coach Peter German believes the Ovens and Murray league club is on the cusp of a successful era provided the right call is made on his replacement.
The former North Melbourne player and successful coach at state league level was appointed coach of WAFL side Perth Demons this week after dragging Corowa-Rutherglen up the ladder to the edge of playing finals.
German coached another WAFL team, Subiaco, to a flag in 2004 with Perth finishing second bottom this year.
“(Perth) are a club that has got its act together off the field,” he said.
“The challenge is to get something happening positive on the field.”
German said his “time was done” at Corowa-Rutherglen, the home club of Sydney Swans coach John Longmire.
“I loved the people, enjoyed my time, but where I wanted to go with my coaching it wasn’t going to suit Corowa basically,” German said.
“It’s chalk and cheese at WAFL with resources, networks compared to a lot of the Ovens and Murray clubs.”
Corowa-Rutherglen under-18s have come from the elimination final to make Sunday’s grand final.
The team includes Longmire’s nephew Jedd, who was captain of Assumption College this year, and Ryan Beveridge, who has kicked 93 goals for the season.
Corowa-Rutherglen confirmed last month German wouldn’t be coaching the club again.
“I know how much passion there is for the club from a lot of people, but they’ve got to get this next one right,” he said.
“There is something now to work with.
“It’s not like it is a club that is on its knees.
“I’d love to see the boys maintain the growth and development that’s happening now.”
German had a short-lived stint as coach of O&M rival Albury in 2019.
GOULBURN VALLEY
Rochester has gone internally for its next coach with club legend Ash Watson to take charge.
Watson played more than 200 matches for Rochester in a career that has included best on ground in the club’s 2008 premiership win, five best and fairests and a Morrison Medal.
He is presently an assistant coach to Steve Stroobants, who is stepping down after guiding the club through the difficulties of Covid.
Rochester finished fourth at the end of the home and away rounds and plays Mooroopna in a sudden-death elimination final on Sunday.
Watson, who was drafted by North Melbourne in 2002, retired as a player in 2019.
“The first job will be retaining the players we’ve currently got,” he said.
“There is a great bunch of young kids at the club at the moment.
“Then we will look at the areas where we need to top up and take that next step.”
In other Goulburn Valley coaching moves, Essendon premiership player Paul Barnard will replace Paul Kirby as coach of Tatura.
Barnard has been coaching Essendon and District league team Doutta Stars.
Another former Bomber, recently retired club best and fairest winner Devon Smith is returning to his original club, Lara in the Geelong league, as co-coach of the team that won only two matches this season.
In the Hampden league, Portland and senior coach Winnis Imbi have parted ways after a troubled season that saw the club forfeit a match at senior level late in the year.
Dustin McCorkell, a two-time premiership player with Warrnambool, has been appointed as his replacement.
Chris McLaren has been re-appointed coach of Koroit, which heads into a second semi-final against North Warrnabool on Saturday.
NORTH GIPPSLAND
Leigh Brown, who played at three AFL clubs in a career spanning 246 senior matches, is taking over as coach of the club where he started, Heyfield.
The 40-year-old won’t rule out playing the occasional match for the North Gippsland league club, which is in one of its longest flag droughts with its most recent premiership being a decade ago.
He takes over from Cody Woodland, who is stepping down after only taking on the role in February.
Brown has been Heyfield’s director of coaching this season.
“As we kept going through the process, the more excited I got about the coaching position and being around a lot more,” he said.
“The timing was right.
“For me it’s about giving back to a club that I owe so much to and where I grew up.”
Brown was drafted by Fremantle in 1999 and played the bulk of his AFL career at North Melbourne.
But the high point came with Collingwood when he was a member of its 2010 premiership team.
At one stage, in the early 2000s, Heyfield had five players on AFL lists: Brown, Mark Stevens, David Wojcinski, Matthew Ferguson and Adrian Cox.
After he retired at the end of 2011, Brown had a five-year stint as coach of Gippsland Power and also coached the Victorian Country under-18s team.
Heyfield missed finals this year.
“Covid hasn’t helped, but it’s a young and fairly inexperienced group particularly this year,” Brown said. “Our juniors are always very good and that is the case again this year.”
OVENS AND MURRAY
Former Collingwood player Sam Murray will get an early taste of what awaits next season when he steps in as coach of Wangaratta Rovers on Saturday.
Murray has been appointed as Rovers coach for the next two seasons, replacing Daryn Cresswell, who has been in charge since 2019.
Cresswell will miss another game on Saturday as he travels interstate to watch one of his sons, Jake, play in Adelaide, and Murray will slide into the hot seat with finals just around the corner.
Cresswell struck an agreement with the club before the season that he would miss some matches to watch his sons play.
One of the games he missed was the Rovers’ best win of the season against Albury.
Murray’s AFL career with Collingwood ended abruptly in 2018 when he returned a positive matchday test to an illicit drug.
Murray, who turns 25 next month, is one of the leading contenders for the O and M league’s Morris medal this year.
Rovers football director Barry Sullivan said Murray’s maturity over the last 12 to 18 months had been “incredible” and was ready for the demands of coaching.
“We interviewed a number of candidates and he shocked us,” Sullivan said.
“His insights, his views on what he felt we needed going forward, were very good.
“He’s already had a number of chats with players who weren’t sure what they were doing next year.
“But after spending some time with him they’ve signed and are raring to go again.”
Murray will remain living and working in Melbourne where Rovers have a large number of players also based.
But the club is working on plans to bring in a Wangaratta-based assistant or co-coach to help Murray from next year.
Murray plans to travel to Wangaratta for training every Thursday and stay for weekend games.
“We definitely need to put support structures around him,” Sullivan said.
GOULBURN VALLEY
Mooroopna has re-signed John Lamont as coach as it strives to make finals for the first time since 2014.
Lamont is about to complete his first full season in charge of the club after previously coaching VFL team Werribee.
Mooroopna is locked in a tough fight to make finals after losing to Mansfield last round.
“I have been really happy with the continued development of our group and look forward to this continuing in season 2023,” Lamont said.
“The club has created a really positive learning environment and we are starting to get some reward for that.
“There is plenty more to be done and I am on-board.”
Mooroopna lost to Mansfield by 14 points and has two tough matches against teams above it on the ladder, Euroa and Echuca, to complete the season.
It has 11 wins, one more than Rochester and Kyabram, which are also trying to sure up a finals with the wildcard being Seymour, sitting outside the top six with games to come against out of contention, Tatura and Shepparton United.
Assistant coach Darren Ogier is also expected to remain at Mooropna next year despite an approach to return to a main coaching role from at least one other club in the Murray league.
BALLARAT
Former Essendon player Jackson Merrett will make the switch from player to coach of Ballarat league club East Point next season.
East Point, sitting second on the ladder behind flag favourites Melton, made the announcement on Thursday night.
Merrett takes over from Jake Bridges, who has coached the club to the last two premierships in 2018-19 before the onset of Covid.
Merrett came to the club this year from WAFL side Peel Thunder, in Western Australia, where he won the club’s best and fairest.
He played 56 matches for Essendon with his brother Zach presently a star player with the Bombers.
Merrett has been appointed for two years as coach of East Point.
GEELONG
Mark Neeld is making a coaching comeback at country level with Geelong league side South Barwon.
He most recently coached in the Geelong league with St Josephs in 2004 before taking on the Western Jets coaching job in the statewide under-18s competition.
Neeld was an assistant coach at Collingwood when the Magpies won the flag in 2010 before taking on the senior job with Melbourne in 2012.
Soon after his AFL playing career with Geelong and Richmond ended, Neeld coached Ocean Grove to four successive premierships in the Bellarine league.
He is presently a member of the K rock football commentary team.
Neeld will coach South Barwon for the next three seasons and takes over from Dave Farrell.
HAMPDEN
Port Fairy coach Winnis Imbi is yet to commit to leading the Hampden league club out of its present struggles.
Imbi initially joined the club as an assistant coach in 2018 after coaching Portland and North Gambier to flags.
The previous year Port Fairy played in the grand final and lost to Koroit.
He took over as senior coach in 2020, but this season, which included last round’s forfeit to Koroit, is his first full year in charge after the previous two were disrupted by Covid.
Imbi and the club are in talks about whether he is the right person to lead the long road back to being a finals contender.
He is hoping the club can find some additional coaching support for himself and playing assistant Kaine Mercovich.
“I’ve put a couple of things to them as well about the support I need and the playing group needs as well,” he said.
“There is certainly no bad blood.
“It’s about everyone being happy about where we’re progressing.
“We probably need about three other coaches to join us as well as line coaches to try and spread the level of education that is needed.
“It’s not like we’re asking for the world.
“I think the players would like that level of support as well.”
Imbi has also previously coached Heywood and spent time as a rookie list player at AFL level with North Melbourne and Essendon.
Port Fairy has not won a flag since 1958.
“I ultimately want to help this club grow, but we need to put things in place to help that,” he said.
“It’s much bigger than myself.”
OVENS AND MURRAY
Former Collingwood player Tim Broomhead has been appointed coach of Ovens and Murray league club North Albury for the next three years.
He joined the club this year as a player and his decision to sign up on a long deal follows the early season upheaval of Luke Norman stepping down as coach and being replaced by interim duo and club greats, Corey Lambert and Clint Gilson.
Broomhead played 37 matches for the Magpies between 2013 and 2020 and signed with North Albury after a Covid-shortened season at Seaford last year.
“Coaching is something I’ve gotten more of an interest in over the last year or two,” he said.
“It wasn’t necessarily on the cards at North Albury when I signed to play there.
“It will be a bit of a challenge.
“Hopefully some of our younger players and all players can develop a bit more and if we can recruit a couple, fortunes can change pretty quickly.”
Broomhead will relocate to the border before the end of the year with his young family.
This year he has had a coaching role with St Michael’s Grammar School in St Kilda.
North Albury has won only one match this season against Wodonga Raiders, who turned the tables with a one-point win when they played again last round.
“Where the club is at it’s going to take a little bit to improve and become more competitive,” Broomhead said.
He joins a long list of former AFL presently players coaching in the O and M.
They are another former Magpie, Ben Reid at Wangaratta, Mark Whiley (Yarrawonga), Anthony Miles (Albury), Dawson Simpson (Myrtleford), Darryn Cresswell (Wangaratta Rovers), Peter German (Corowa-Rutherglen) and Adam Schneider (Lavington).
Cresswell is stepping down at the end of the season.
GOULBURN VALLEY
Goulburn Valley league legend Paul Kirby has quit as coach of Tatura, frustrated by the impacts Covid has had on the team’s prospects for success.
Kirby took over as coach at the end of 2019 when he retired as a player in a career that included two flags with Tatura and another two at Ovens and Murray league club Wangaratta.
“I know we’ve missed the window for some success,” he said.
“(Heading into 2020) we retained everyone, had a really good pre-season and a change of momentum.
“But then Covid hit.
“A couple of blokes went to Queensland, one went back to Canberra from where he was from because there were different rules floating around in the middle of it all.
“We found it so hard to recruit after Covid.
“We went hard and put out some good offers, but couldn’t land anyone.”
Tatura played finals in 2019 under Kirby’s predecessor Jameson Daniels.
The side sits 11th on the ladder this season.
Kirby has played 380 GV matches with Tongala and Tatura with his two flags at Tatura coming in 2003 and 2012.
He also played in back-to-back premierships for Wangaratta in 2007-08.
GIPPSLAND
Traralgon coach Jake Best has his focus fixed firmly on the Gippsland league finals series after being locked in as coach for another season.
The club’s charge to the finals has been further boosted by its leading forward, former AFL player Brett Eddy, also agreeing to stay at the club next year.
Traralgon is the team that has come closest to rolling undefeated Leongatha this season.
“I feel like we’re in a bit of a window at the moment,” Best said.
“I feel as though success is just around the corner if we all stick around.
“We’ve played nine under-18 kids and beaten everyone in the competition except Leongatha.
“They wouldn’t want to play with us if we got there, but the hardest thing will be getting there because you’ve got Sale, Wonthaggi and us all pretty similar.”
Best is also confident former Hawthorn rookie list player Tom Schneider will stay at the club.
Traralgon thrashed Bairnsdale by 100 points on Saturday to remain in fourth spot with Eddy kicking eight goals.
Sale and Wonthaggi had equally convincing wins at the weekend to remain in second and third spots, two points clear of Traralgon.
Wonthaggi coach Jarryd Blair has also confirmed he will be staying on as the club’s coach next year.
Leongatha has suffered a blow in the countdown to finals with forward Jack Ginnane suspended for eight weeks for an incident involving Wonthaggi’s Jordan Staley in round 12.
Club president Mal Mackie said Leongatha was appealing the severity of the penalty to Ginnane, who had previously never been suspended, but declined to comment further.
Meanwhile, Wangaratta Rovers have confirmed Darryn Cresswell is in his final season in charge.
Cresswell began coaching the club in 2018 after it failed to win a match the previous year.
The Ovens and Murray club is on track to play finals this year with victories over Yarrawonga and Albury season high points.
Former Richmond player Chris Naish looms as a contender to replace Cresswell after stepping in as coach when the former Sydney Swans star missed matches to watch his two sons play in Melbourne and Adelaide.
MURRAY
Sean Harrap has signed on for another season in charge of Numurkah, which will miss finals this year.
He was initially appointed coach of the club at the end of 2019, but due to Covid, this season will be his first full year at the helm.
Numurkah won four of the 13 matches played last year.
“We’ve won seven games this year, but probably dropped a couple of games we shouldn’t have,” Harrap said.
“We’ve also had rotten luck with injuries to key players.
“We don’t need to go out and recruit 10 to 15 guys, we just need to target the players who are going to make us improve quite quickly.”
Among the key personnel to have injury-interrupted seasons are Jamason Daniels, who previously coached GV club Tatura and also had a brief stint at Wangaratta Rovers in the Ovens and Murray league.
Daniels hurt his quad early in the season then suffered a knee injury soon after.
Rhys Cason, who won the club’s best and fairest as a 17-year-old last year, has only played five games.
But Harrap said Jarrod Holmes and Kade O’Dwyer had been among the success stories of the year.
HAMPDEN
Adam Dowie’s reappointment as coach of North Warrnambool has coincided with the club’s most important win of the season.
Last round it bumped Portland from third spot on the ladder with a 49-point victory that also coincided with the return from injury of star recruit Nathan Vardy, who had been out for a month with a groin injury.
Vardy has also signed on for another season with North.
It has a superior percentage to Portland, which has to play ladder leaders Koroit and second-placed South Warrnambool in the last two home and away matches.
Dowie had coached six flags in the Hampden league before taking on the coaching job of North Warrnambool in 2019 when it narrowly lost the grand final to Koroit.
“I feel like I’ve still got energy and enthusiasm and my family really enjoy North Warrnambool,” Dowie said.
“We’ve beaten South the last two times we’ve played them, but they are a good side and got a couple out at the moment.
“The team everyone has been trying to chase is Koroit.
“Whichever game they’re going into, they’re going in as favourites.”
GOULBURN VALLEY
Shepparton Swans have appointed Jedd Wright as coach for the next two seasons.
Wright is presently coaching Picola league club Katamatite, which is sitting in fourth position on the ladder and on track to play finals.
He will take over from present Swans coach Andrew Riordan, who will stay on as a player next year.
The Swans are coming off one of their best wins of the season with a two-point victory over sixth-placed Seymour last round.
Wright has fulfilled an ambition to play alongside his brother and former North Melbourne player Sam at Katamatite with the 136-match AFL player expected to be a prime recruiting target for next year despite turning 32 recently.
“He is a chance,” Jedd said.
“We will wait for this season to finish up, we’re still a genuine chance of having a tilt at it.
“He’s purely focused on getting the most of himself to help us go deep into September.”
Jedd will retire as a player at the end of this year to be a non-playing coach of the Swans.
He has coached Katamatite since 2018 and had one season as a player with Shepparton Swans in 2015.
Wright said Riordan was a close mate and had been instrumental in convincing him to pursue the Swans coaching job.
“He wants to really focus on his footy and spend a bit more time with his family,” Wright said.
“We’ve been talking for a few weeks and it’s good to get it all done early.”
BENDIGO
Eaglehawk coach Travis Matheson has signed on for another season in charge as his team tries to force its way into the Bendigo league top five in the run home to September.
The four-time Kerang premiership coach was initially appointed coach of Eaglehawk in 2019 and lost the last grand final played due to Covid by under 10 points to Strathfieldsaye.
Despite a thrilling win against third-placed Golden Square at the weekend, Eaglehawk remains out of the top five with five rounds remaining.
Matheson had previously played for Eaglehawk when he was attending university in Bendigo.
“It was always somewhere I intended to get back to,” he said.
“I was rapt when the opportunity came up.
“It’s got that home away from home feel about it.
“We had a chat a couple of weeks ago and everyone was happy to push on.
“We’ve got a very young list together so hopefully over the next couple of years we can have some success.”
Matheson initially co-coached Kerang to the 2014-15 premierships with Troy Coates before winning the next two on his own.
Coates was the opposing Strathfieldsaye coach in 2019 when Eaglehawk finished runner-up.
Matheson underwent a shoulder reconstruction after his final season at Kerang in 2018 when the club bowed out in the preliminary final after winning six flags in a row.
GIPPSLAND
Warragul coach Dean Alger will step down at the end of the Gippsland league season confident the club is on the right path.
Alger was appointed coach of Warragul in 2020 with this year to be his first full season in charge due to the Covid interruptions of the previous two years.
It sits eighth on the ladder with its high points being a win over Traralgon and a draw against Wonthaggi, which will both play finals.
But the downside has been losses to Drouin and Bairnsdale, which are below them on the ladder.
“It’s been an up-and-down year,” Alger said.
“Our good has been good, but our bad has been bad.”
Alger previously coached Nyora, Korumburra, Kilcunda Bass and Nilma Darnum before joining Warragul.
Warragul president Mick Ireland said the club would start the search for a coach who “can take on a young group and an emerging group”.
“We’ve shown signs of being a really exciting outfit this year compared to the recent past,” he said.
“We’ve got a record number of players in Gippsland Power this year, more than any other club around.
“Things are heading in the right direction.
“Our aim was to get off the bottom of the ladder and we’re off the bottom of the ladder.”
High profile recruits Jed Lamb and Nick Graham had committed to playing for Warragul again next season, Ireland said.
OVENS AND MURRAY
Wodonga has reappointed Jordan Taylor for another season despite a horror run with injuries personally since taking on the job at the start of last year.
Recurring hamstring injuries have restricted Taylor to only nine matches for the club that will miss finals again.
Wodonga has recorded four wins this season, equalling the number of victories of the 2021 season shortened by Covid-19, with the most recent being against cross town rivals Wodonga Raiders last round.
But the club has raised the bar in the recruiting stakes under Taylor with the addition of former VFL players Angus Baker and Alex Smout.
Taylor is originally from Finley where his father Mick was a three-time premiership player for the Murray league club in 1981-82 and 1988.
His father is also a Maskell medal winner in the Hampden league with Port Fairy in 1986.
HAMPDEN
Portland has locked in its coach Jarrod Holt for next season in a move he hopes will keep the club near the top of the Hampden league ladder.
The announcement at the weekend of Holt’s reappointment for another season coincided with a general bye in the competition with Portland sitting in third spot on the ladder behind Koroit and South Warrnambool, the only two teams it has lost to this year.
“The club spoke to me a while ago about locking it away early,” Holt said.
“We’re obviously trying to concentrate on finishing this year strong.
“But if you don’t start for next year now, you can get left behind.”
Portland hasn’t played finals since joining the Hampden league in 2013 when Holt was the playing coach of the club.
“We lost to the top couple of sides pretty comfortably,” he said.
“But we didn’t feel as though we played at our best.
“They are probably two really mature sides and have been on top of their game for a while, especially Koroit.”
GIPPSLAND
Outgoing Morwell coach Denis Knight says clubs shoring up their direction and leadership roles, including senior coaches, is critical to future success.
Morwell announced before the season started that Knight would co-coach this year with Boyd Bailey, who will take over on his own in 2023.
“If you have (direction and leadership) right your footy club is a chance, if you don’t have that right you’re in all sorts of trouble,” he said.
“Just with Covid everybody’s life changed a little bit, hence I let the footy club know I would be doing only one more year.
“I said ‘let’s put a plan in place’ so we don’t get to this stage now when every club is looking for a coach.”
Morwell is back in the finals mix with five wins from their past six games including the scalp of arch rival Traralgon in the last round.
Bairnsdale has signed Logan Austin for another season as coach and bottom-placed Drouin recently announced Brent Clinnick would be taking over from its coach of the past five seasons, Jordan Kingi.
Clinnick was previously an assistant coach with Dandenong Stingrays, Frankston and Phillip Island.
Sale confirmed at the start of the year Jack Johnstone would also be coaching in 2023 after previously playing for arch rival Maffra.
OVENS AND MURRAY
Shaun Daly is returning to the Albury top job in a co-coaching capacity next year with former Richmond and Greater Western Sydney midfielder Anthony Miles.
Daly had a remarkable three seasons in the job from 2016 to 2018 with two flags, a runner-up finish and a 58-2 win-loss record.
He replaces Luke Daly, no relation, as co-coach of Albury and Miles is yet to complete a full season in charge since coming to the club in 2020.
Shaun Daly coached Queensland club Mayne in the mid-2010s before returning to Albury where he had already been a multiple premiership player and league best and fairest winner.
Daly is still playing for Albury and is no certainty to retire at the end of the year based on his present form.
Former Collingwood key forward Ben Reid is locked in as coach of ladder leaders Wangaratta Magpies until the end of 2023.
Wangaratta Rovers is preparing for the strong possibility Daryn Cresswell will be departing at the end of the season.
“We’re interested in starting to look at what our succession planning options are,” club football director Barry Sullivan said.
“If people are out there and have aspirations of getting in contact with us that is not a problem.
“We would want to either have a commitment from Daryn or have plans well and truly in place by the end of August.”
Cresswell reached an agreement with the club to miss some matches this year to watch two sons playing in Melbourne and South Australia.
Former Richmond player Chris Naish has taken charge when Cresswell has been unavailable including a recent thrilling win against Albury.
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