Tara Murray
New Sunshine Heights coach Stephen O’Malley knows he has a big challenge ahead of him at the Western Region Football League division 2 club.
The Dragons plans for the 2024 season were thrown into disarray in late December with coach Colby Blyth deciding to depart the club after two seasons.
They moved quickly and appointed O’Malley to the role.
O’Malley said he was looking forward to the challenge.
“I’m excited,” he said. “With Colby stepping down they advertised that they were looking for a coach.
“A friend of ours has a good relationship with the president. I had a couple of meetings with other clubs [in the off season] before putting footy on the back board.
“I went down and had a chat [with Sunshine Heights] and I liked what they were offering and we went from there.”
O’Malley is no stranger to the WRFL, having been involved at three other clubs.
He spent time as a reserves coach at Manor Lakes, four years as a senior assistant coach at Tarneit, one season at Wyndham Suns and was a reserves coach at Anakie for two years.
He said he was keen to have a shot at a senior coaching role and knows that having had some experience in the league will help with taking on the role.
O’Malley admits being appointed later in the pre-season isn’t ideal.
“It’s better to be appointed in September or October so you can meet all the guys, instead of a couple of days before Christmas,” he said.
“I’ve been sending messages and setting up meetings to get to meet the players.
“Getting into the game plan and getting the players to understand what we want to do [will be the hardest thing] and it’s just about getting back to having fun playing football.
“We’ll get into pre-season and see what we can do.”
O’Malley said the club had done a lot of hard work locking in players before this season which had made things easier stepping into the role.
This season the WRFL will only be two divisions, which presents a new challenge for the Dragons, who made finals in division 3 both years under Blyth.
O’Malley said it’s a challenge he is looking forward to.
“We’ve played against a few of those other sides the last few years,” he said.
“Then there’s other sides like Wyndhamvale, Albion and Sunshine which have played division 1 football.
“Bring on the challenge.”
The club has also announced that Vince Sposato will return to the club as president with a clear goal and plan in place for the future of the club.
The club also announced that James Weston has been voted in as vice-president and will be working closely with Sposato the next couple of years with a clear succession plan in place.
