By Nick Creely
While the inaugural AFL Outer East interleague side lost heavily on Saturday, for coach Nick Rutley it was a valuable learning experience moving forward in an already impressive coaching career.
Out of club land this year to spend more time with a young family after guiding Wandin to the 2018 Yarra Ranges premiership, as well as juggling that with assistant coach duties with the Carlton AFLW side, that burning desire to get back in the ringer was reaffirmed by taking on the job as interleague coach.
“It’s got me thinking again, that’s for sure – last year my wife and I decided I needed a break, and we transitioned Nick Adam into the role which was perfect, and the way Wandin handled that was brilliant. Winning a flag was good luck and a nice way to go out,” he told the Gazette.
“I put all my eggs into the Carlton basket, and (Daniel) Harford came in and wanted to go clean slate, which is fair enough, but it left me jobless.
“I’m still deciding on what pathway I do want to go down, whether it’s female space or men’s or boys coaching.
“I’ve got some Young Gun games to go that I’m involved with, and when they’re done, I’ll take a few months to be home, and then assess where I’m at.
“By August, clubs will start to decide if they need a coach for next year, so it’s definitely got me really thinking.”
Taking away the result of Saturday’s belting to the Bendigo Football League, Rutley said it was an enjoyable experience to lead the inaugural side, and came away mightily impressed with how the host league were able to get a full buy in from its players. He hopes, if given the chance to coach the Outer East again, that he can achieve a similar unity.
“I loved it, even though the day was disappointing as a result, I still gained a hell of a lot out of it as a coach,” he said.
“The way Bendigo operated on field and off-field as well, it was great, I got a heap out of it.
“We probably lacked a bit of buy in, we had some injuries that cruelled us late, so weighing those two things together, I still felt like we took a pretty talented list up with us.
“All credit to Bendigo, they got together in October and had a full buy in, they really want to play interleague – the cultural difference and the mindset difference to interleague to those in country parts compared to us is very different.
“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but I think we’ve got players that make up the Yarra Valley and the south-east which is the Outer East, and a lot of guys that aren’t passionate about interleague footy, and they prefer to have the week off, so we’ve got work to do in that area, and that stood out a lot.”
Experience – or a lack of – was certainly evident for Rutley in his side, and said that going forward, it was important for the league and himself to learn more about how to approach interleague in the future.
“In terms of experience, we lacked what they had, and that probably showed out – Marcus Hottes, Brandon Osborne and to an extent, Ash Smith, played really well, and then Timmy Gunn, Patrick Bruzzese were good, and others had moments, while others had days to forget.”
While boasting an impressive coaching resume, which includes assistant roles at Carlton, Dandenong Stingrays and at VFL level, before taking on his first senior role at Wandin two years ago, Rutley said he still has plenty of work to do if coaching the Outer East again next year.
“I’ve got some work to do, in terms of my approach to it, I was pretty player and club focused as well, and you do need to be, but at the same time, I need to start earlier to build relationships with clubs and players,” he said.
“I do have good relationships with players and coaches in the south-east just from the past, but it’s definitely an area I need to keep improving on.
“But even more so, (there was) 18 or 19 SEFNL players, so the problem isn’t in there – I’ve got to work harder in my own backyard to get some buy in from out our (Yarra Valley) way to.”
