Ovens & Murray: Max Lynch appointed Albury coach for three years

Ovens & Murray clubs are shoring up coaching positions for 2025 and beyond with a former AFL player the latest addition to ranks. See who else is hunting for a coach.

Albury has turned to a rookie coach who had his AFL career cut short from repeated concussions, to lead the club for the next three years in the Ovens & Murray league.

Max Lynch played 11 matches for Collingwood and Hawthorn before being forced into premature retirement nearly 12 months ago.

Due to his history, the AFL’s independent medical concussion panel recommended the 25-year-old no longer play contact sport following another head knock against Adelaide in May last year.

He played for Jindera, Albury and the Murray Bushrangers before being taken in the 2017 rookie draft.

Max Lynch leaves the field in a match in 2022. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)

Sine returning to Albury where he works as a teacher and has been playing soccer in the local competition, Lynch spent time with Hawthorn’s AFLW coaching staff.

“Max is an outstanding candidate to lead our great club into the future,” Albury president Lindsay Rollings said.

“He brings a wealth of experience from the AFL and AFLW and has natural leadership, education and communication skills.”

Albury’s present coaches, former AFL player Anthony Miles and club legend Shaun Daly, will step down at season’s end with the Tigers locked in a tough battle to play finals after losing the grand final narrowly to Yarrawonga last year.

It hasn’t missed finals since 2008, but finds itself out of the top five with eight matches remaining.

Former Wodonga Raiders and Wangaratta Rovers coach, Daryn Cresswell, had been linked to the Albury coaching job.

But the Lynch appointment at Albury removes the biggest obstacle to Corowa-Rutherglen securing Cresswell as coach for 2025.

Chad Owens will coach his original club Wodonga Raiders after stints with Mansfield and Palm Beach-Currumbin. Photo by Richard Gosling

Meanwhile, Wodonga Raiders have also locked in a coach for next year with Chad Owens also returning to his original club.

Owens most recently had a stint with Goulburn Valley club Mansfield including a preliminary final finish in 2022.

The Raiders are chasing a playing co-coach to work alongside Owens, whose early signing gives the struggling club a chance to begin recruiting and shoring up its current list.

The key signature will be former Brisbane and Adelaide player Cam Ellis-Yolmen, who has been at the club for two years.