There will be a very special reunion among a new-look Port Adelaide coaching staff when the 2019 pre-season gets under way at Alberton next week.
And there’s every chance that Michael Voss, as senior assistant coach, will be the target of some fierce banter among the coaching ranks.
Port’s appointment last week of ruck coach Dean Brogan after the earlier signing of midfield coach Jarrad Schofield and backline coach Brett Montgomery will reunite the trio for the first time in 14 years.
Not since they played together in Port’s 2004 Premiership side have Brogan, Schofield and Montgomery worked together.
Pulled from all parts of the country to bolster the support crew of senior coach Ken Hinkley, the trio of recruits will also find themselves reunited with 2004 premiership teammate Chad Cornes, who is a development coach, and Michael Wilson, now a club physio.
Once the catch-up niceties are out of the way it won’t escape the notice of the Power premiership group that it was Voss’ Brisbane Lions that Port beat for their first AFL flag 14 years ago.
Remarkably, no less than 15 players from the 2004 grand final will fill coaching roles in the 2019 AFL.
From the Port side there is Brogan, Schofield, Montgomery, Cornes, Richmond senior coach Damien Hardwick, Gold Coast senior coach Stuart Dew, new Richmond assistant-coach Adam Kingsley, who has recently moved from St.Kilda, and St.Kilda assistant-coach Brendon Lade, who has recently moved from Port
And from the Brisbane side there is Voss, Geelong senior coach Chris Scott, North Melbourne senior coach Brad Scott, Geelong assistant-coach Nigel Lappin, Richmond assistant-coaches Justin Leppitsch and Blake Caracella, and Richmond development coach Craig McRae.
Port’s Josh Mahoney is also filling a key administrative role as head of football at Melbourne, while Brisbane’s Luke Power is head coach of the AFL Academy.
Brett Montgomery is returning to Port Adelaide in 2018, while Premiership teammate Josh Mahoney is the head of football at Melbourne |
Brogan, Schofield and Montgomery will bring the experience of 450 games for Port and 604 AFL games in total to Alberton, plus a combined nine top 10 finishes in the Port B&F.
They were together at Port for four years from 2001-04 but only 36 times did all three actually play together in the AFL.
Still, it was a winning formula – they won 29 of those 36 games, including the qualifying final, preliminary final and grand final of 2004.
They shared Brogan’s first game for Port in Round 9 2001, and Schofield’s last game for Port in the 2004 grand final, plus Brogan’s 50th AFL game, Montgomery’s 100th and 150th AFL game and Montgomery’s 100th game for Port.
And they share the distinction of each being a Port games record-holder in their respective jumpers – Montgomery in #3, Schofield in #6 and Brogan in #20.
Brogan, who played 174 games with Port from 2001-11, is ‘home’ after seven years away. He played 19 games with the GWS Giants in 2012-13, and has been ruck coach at the expansion club from 2014-18.
Schofield, who played 63 games with West Coast from 1993-98 and 12 games with Fremantle from 2005-06 either side of his 131 games at Port from 1999-2004, has been 14 years away in total.
After his stint at Fremantle he played in the WAFL before embarking on a coaching career that has seen him take Subiaco to five grand finals and three premierships in the past six years.
Montgomery, who played 126 games at Port from 2000-05 either side of two playing stints and 78 games at the Western Bulldogs from 1997-99 and 2006-07, has been 13 years away from Alberton.
A graduate of the AFL’s exclusive level four coaching program and AFLCA Assistant Coach of the Year in 2014, he was assistant-coach at Carlton from 2008-10 and the Bulldogs from 2011-16, and for the past two years has been football director at Melbourne Grammar.
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