Garry Ramsay will coach the Northern Football League senior representative team at the 2017 AFL Victoria Community Championships.
A two-time NFL premiership coach, Ramsay led Macleod to the 2015 Division 1 flag and Lower Plenty to the Division 2 premiership in 2011.
Speaking to NFL.org.au, Ramsay said he was excited to be at the helm for the NFL’s clash against the Western Region Football League on Saturday May 13.
“I’ve spent my whole life in the Northern Football League so I’m very passionate about it,” Ramsay said.
“It’s a lot easier to coach and lead people when you’re passionate about what you are playing for.
“We’re playing for the Northern Football League and I’d like to think I will put a lot of time in and take this serious.”
It will be Ramsay’s first foray into senior representative football, although he has previously coached junior interleague teams at under-15, under-16 and under-17 levels.
Despite his outstanding coaching record, Ramsay said he was surprised when first approached about the representative position.
“I hadn’t even thought about it to be honest. But when the opportunity came up I jumped at it,” he said.
“It’s something I haven’t ever thought about because I’ve always just been happy coaching my club and haven’t really aspired to coach at a higher level.
“It will be a great opportunity.”
Ramsay will be assisted by Trevor Robinson, Brett Jeffery and Jono Manzoney – all of whom are well regarded within the NFL.
Robinson was named captain of Bundoora’s Team of the Century and led the Bulls to back-to-back Division 1 premierships in 1995 and 1996.
Jeffery claimed the competition best and fairest in 2006 and captained Northcote Park, while Manzoney coached Hurstbridge in 2013 and 2014 and played a major role in developing the young side that went on to win last year’s Division 2 flag.
Having assembled his coaching panel, Ramsay said his next task was to start putting together a playing squad.
“We endeavour to make contact with the individual players before we announce the squad,” he said.
“When we do announce the squad players will have already been contacted and will have confirmed their level of commitment. We won’t be just naming a player and not know whether they want to play or not.
“Part of the plan to ring players before we announce the squad, to make sure they’re interested, (is to) name a smaller squad because it’s easier to add players than subtract them.
“For the players who fire in the first few rounds, there will still be an opportunity to be added, rather than name too big a squad and limit ourselves to that squad.”
Ramsay urged all clubs to support the representative program as the NFL looks to get back to winning ways following a 30-point loss to the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League last year.
“You’d like to think that every club would give their players the opportunity to play at the best possible level,” he said.
“It would be nice to think that all clubs would want their players playing at the highest level and go and support them on the day.
“We want all of the Northern Football League supporting their own players.”
Ramsay takes the reins from Robert Hyde who relinquished the position to focus on his return as senior coach at Greensborough.
While there has been a change to the NFL’s senior coach, the league’s under-19 representative team will again be led by Rod Cann.
Cann, a three-time under-19 premiership coach with Greensborough, successfully led the NFL to an 85-point win over the MPNFL last year.
“Once again I’m looking forward to it, particularly against a different opposition and with a different group of players,” Cann said.
“It’s an exciting time for the players and it’s a great opportunity for them to put their hand up.
“Some of the group of players selected last year just goes to show what they can do beyond that game with the experience they picked up from the opportunity of playing at a higher level.”
An announcement on the NFL’s netball representative coaches will be made shortly.
