Winning coaches are heading for the exit in the Essendon District Football League after the last two men to lead their team to the top prize left the division last week.
Anthony Rock leaves Greenvale with back-to-back flags under his belt to take on the senior coaching job at VAFA outfit St Bernard’s, while Strathmore’s 2011 premiership coach Digby Morrell is heading to division 1 club West Coburg.
The Rock departure ends a three-year stint in which he won the 2012 and 2013 premierships and sported a 51-11 win-loss record.
St Bernard’s sacked its coach Chris Tankard during the 2013 season. The Snowdogs, with a 7-1-10 record (seventh of 10), avoided relegation from Premier by one win and a sizeable percentage gap.
Rock’s work before his Greenvale stint included 222 AFL games with North Melbourne and Hawthorn, an AFL premiership as a player in 1996, a VFL premiership in 2001, coaching in the TAC Cup and assistant coach at three AFL clubs.
PICTURE GALLERY: Greenvale v Aberfeldie grand final
“The timing is right and I need a fresh challenge,” Rock said. “Every club wants to be successful and this is about winning a premiership; that’s what I’m here to do.
“There’s also an eye to development. And the different challenges to attract players.”
Rock’s work with his business Accelerate, which incorporates an education program designed to support grassroots and community coaches, was also a factor in his decision to switch to St Bernard’s.
“It’s a new landscape from a business perspective,” Rock said.
“We have a long-term athlete participation strategy that has a parallel coach education strategy … we’re making some nice inroads with that concept.”
Rock said the short-term goal would be establishing the right work ethic in his playing group.
“I don’t think the playing group are under any illusions; there are no guarantees of success,” he said. “At Greenvale we created history.
“I leave with no ill feelings and the club vice-versa. It was a hard decision for me because I had a wonderful playing group.”
At Shore Reserve, Digby Morrell arrives to take the reins from outgoing coach Neil Taylor.
Morrell led Strathmore to its 2011 premier division premiership, then to the brink of another as the team went unbeaten through the 2012 season only to lose to Greenvale in the grand final.
West Coburg lost back-to-back division 1 grand finals in 2011 and 2012 after being relegated from premier division (then A grade) in 2010.
Taylor is taking a year off football and the Burgers expect him to return to the club in 2015.
Greenvale is expected to conduct interviews and announce Rock’s successor by mid-November.
