Joel Farrelly and Keltie Blake were named two of Victoria’s top coaches.
By Casey Neill
TWO local coaches have been recognised for their contribution to grassroots football at the 21st Australian Football Coaches Association awards.
Awards were presented to Victoria’s Auskick, junior, youth, female and senior coaches of the year in a ceremony at the MCG on 7 November.
Ferntree Gully Eagles Junior Football Club’s Joel Farrelly, and Keltie Blake from Montrose Junior Football Club, were among more than 60 coaches recognised by their regional AFCA branch for excellence in coaching. They were then named Victorian finalists.
Farrelly was named Youth Coach of the Year after being nominated by his club.
“I was a little bit overwhelmed, to be honest,” he said. “I’d really like to think that it’s a club award because I’ve been here for 10 years, but there have been a lot of other people along the way helping me.”
The 47-year-old’s passion for Australian rules was ignited when he was playing football with friends at primary school. “From then I’ve always had a love affair with footy,” he said.
Farrelly played junior and senior football with Donvale, and joined the Eagles when he and his family moved to Ferntree Gully in 1989. His wife Di’s brother and parents were involved with the club.
Farrelly took up coaching when his sons Danny, 18, and Dale, 16, began playing juniors, and over the past 10 years, has coached every age group from under-9s to under-16s.
His fondest coaching memory came this year.
After Farrelly’s under-16 team finished its season five weeks before the under-18 side, six of his players went on to play in the under-18 team “and they played really well’’.
“That was a very satisfying moment for me as a coach because you can look back and the kids have developed the skills that they need to have,” he said.
A number of Farrelly’s players have gone on to play first division and representative football.
“I like to see kids, once they get to the end of their junior footy, have developed, and gained good skills and a good knowledge of the game,” he said. “And they learn all about team spirit and what it actually means to be involved as part of a team, and I think that’s really important.”
He will take on the Ferntree Gully Eagles reserves team next year.
Blake won female coach of the year after establishing, coaching and playing in Montrose’s first women’s team.
Difficulty finding a local women’s side prompted the 18-year-old to approach the Montrose FC board. “After a bit of pushing, I got it,” she said.
Blake followed younger brothers Laighton and Aston to Auskick and hasn’t looked back.
“Being the only female at Auskick is quite daunting and when you want to push up and start playing, it is even harder,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter if you’re a female or male playing football. You’re a footballer.”
This year, Blake coached and played for Montrose each Saturday, played for Scoresby Magpies and coached an under-10 boys’ side on Sundays, and umpired each weekend, while studying for her VCE.
“Seven days a week you have to be really organised and have your diary set out,” Blake said.
Next year, she will coach the Chirnside Park Football Club under-18 girls’ team. “This club may be low ranked in the EFL, but it’s very community-based and hopefully I can develop a lot more females out of it,” she said.
A back injury two years ago, which kept Blake bed-ridden for six months, kick-started her coaching career.
“I randomly woke up and couldn’t feel from my waist down or move,” she said. “I’d always wanted to get into coaching, but it really prompted me to do it.”
Blake wants to go further with her football and has hopes for a national women’s competition.
