He coached the Fitzroy-ACU Reserves to their first grand final in his first year of coaching with the club. We're delighted to announce Simon Jackson is ready to do it all again and will continue working with the Roy Girls in 2019.

Meanwhile, Trent Coleman, who also had his team move once step closer to a premiership with a preliminary final appearance in 2018, will again coach the Fitzroy Thirds in 2019.

Congratulations Jacko and Trent.

The club is excited to announce the appointment of former Berwick premiership assistant coach, Michael Manley (pictured above, left), as men’s senior assistant coach and former Preston Bullants’ reserves assistant coach, Karl Jackson (right), as assistant coach for 2019.

Fitzroy Premiership coach Luke Mahoney has been building a 2019 coaching team with diverse skills and experience to add to a successful mix as Fitzroy seeks to step up its game in Premier B.

“I think we’re building a good coaching group with complementary skill sets; I was looking for different backgrounds and experience and I think we’ve achieved that with both Michael and Karl,” Luke said.

“It’s exciting to have two new voices with different ideas. We need to keep challenging ourselves and continue to be better as we move up a grade.

“There was a lot of interest in the positions, which is a great reflection on what we’ve achieved this year and the regard for the club. It also means we can choose the best.”

Michael played 202 Senior Games for Lalor, Thomastown and Berwick, largely playing ruck and centre half forward. He was captain at Thomastown from 2009 to 2013 and Berwick vice captain in 2015 before retiring. As a player he was involved in three premierships in 2001, 2008 and 2015.

He comes directly from a very successful year as a senior assistant with a team that was also premier in 2018.

Michael gives the impression of a man who just can’t wait to get started at Fitzroy. With childhood memories of going down to Fitzroy training at Coburg City Oval to have a kick with Bernie Quinlan, he’s keen on the idea of Fitzroy’s history but it was the opportunity to continue to develop his coaching in a good quality competition that appealed most.

“Given my role at Berwick, my strength is in the ability to read other team’s structures and identify strengths and weaknesses. I’m also a business analyst, so in a way I can apply my skills to understanding other teams’ tactics.

“I’m keen to start looking at the vision of the other Premier B sides to understand the standard, the structure, the style and I also want to watch the vision of our games too, so I can see where we might improve and see what other teams might do to try and beat us. If we can identify some weaknesses, then we can work on consistency across the group.”

Michael says he wants to work with our ruck team and also has a lot of on field leadership experience which may be valuable, as a former captain. “I’m also recently out of the game so I think that helps in understanding the modern football and modern style.

“It’s a blank canvas in a way; a new challenge for me. Fitzroy is something fresh and new with a new league, new standard, new team. I will get a lot of satisfaction in helping the group at Fitzroy go to the next level with their play.”
An opportunity to bring together over a decade working in the football industry and experience coaching in volleyball, was something new assistant coach Karl Jackson was keen to grasp with both hands.

With a sporting background that’s included volleyball, athletics, Rugby Union and Rugby League, the native Queenslander, has played with two years with Ivanhoe and one (as playing assistant coach) for the Preston Bullants before a back injury recently put an end to his short football career.

Karl has 15 years’ coaching experience in volleyball, including the past eight at Scotch College.

Karl’s day job is Head of Data & Analytics at Champion Data, where he has been for 11 years; this has involved close contact with AFL coaches and analysts, and construction of new algorithms/metrics to analyse AFL teams and players.

“I got a taste of coaching in the reserves with the Bullants but I was craving more responsibility at a higher level. I know quite a few friends who have played at Fitzroy and I get the impression there is a good vibe.

“The thing I will bring is the lessons we can learn from thinking about football analytically.

“As a coach I think the relationships are the most important thing; you want to have conversations rather than tell people what to do. I focus on personal development and tactics. At the end of the day if players aren’t developing individually then the team is not developing either.”

Fitzroy will go straight into season 2019 with a stern test, facing Old Scotch away in Round 1.

The VAFA Premier B draw has been released and there will be no need to wait to see how we stack up against the best sides.

Round 2 will be greatly anticipated as Fitzroy hosts University Blacks at home for the unfurling of the Premiership flag.

It will be round 7 before the Premier C grand final rematch against Old Geelong at Como Park.

The season features three breaks – Easter, Queen’s birthday and a two-week break at the start of July.

Check out the fixture here.

The VAFA is progressively releasing the fixtures and the Premier Women’s draw is expected next week. Keep an eye out on Facebook and Twitter.

Graeme Willingham, a founder of Fitzroy VicKick, a founder and coach of Fitzroy juniors and father of FFC life member, Richard, has just launched his first book. Not Bad Thanks is about a 38-year-old grass-roots basketball club of the same name which, off the court, mimics the social traditions of Aussie Rules football clubs.

Graeme and Richard play in the team but are identified only by their club nicknames.

The story of the theatrical and comical Not Bad Thanks (NBT) parallels that of our club, in terms of commitment, combat and camaraderie. It also refers to Brunswick Street Oval when a band of NBT Players turned out to support two NBT teammates, both playing their 150th game. One game was won by a Jack Beech goal after the siren; in the other, a goal was kicked so hard by one of the NBT Players – into a 90kmp head-wind – it ‘almost derailed a passing tram’.

Not Bad Thanks plays in the Victorian Business Houses Basketball Association, an open age competition. NBT, as the club is registered, currently plays in B Grade, with a 11-member squad, ranging in age from 25 to 73 years.

Australian basketball legend, Lindsay Gaze, launched the book. He believes it is the first book to delve into the culture of grass-roots basketball in Australia.

Publisher Michael Wilkinson says Willingham mixes fact with fiction in a writing style that celebrates the offbeat and endearing odyssey of a dedicated but wacky group of sporting mates.

The book has already won endorsements, like:

It’s fantastic. Graeme’s done a great job with this. – Gerard Whateley, SEN1116.

Love the book, not only because it’s well written, but also because it’s about things we don’t normally read about … all of us just actually having fun in a local sporting club. – Rafael Epstein, ABC Melbourne.

A must read for all sportspeople, professional to Weekend Warriors – Chris Anstey.

Not Bad Thanks, by Graeme Willingham can be found at www.notbadthanks.com or in bookstores.