FOR OUR COACHES
Coaches Corner
Everything you need to coach at the Saints, in the order you need it. Getting accredited, what it costs, session plans you can actually use on a Tuesday night, and who to call when you're stuck.
APPLYING TO COACH
Every coaching role is open again each year
There is no automatic rollover. Every coach and assistant coach position at this club is advertised, applied for and decided again each season — including roles held by our current coaches, including roles held by very good current coaches.
That isn't a lack of faith in anyone. It's how a club stays open to the people it hasn't met yet, and it's the only way an assistant coach or a parent who's been quietly thinking about it ever gets a look in. If roles roll over by default, the coaches' box slowly closes to everyone outside it.
It also means something for our returning coaches: you are here because you were chosen, not because nobody asked.
HOW THE PROCESS WORKS
Submit the application form
1
One form for head coach and assistant coach roles. Tell us the age group or groups you're interested in, whether you'd take a head or assistant role, and a bit about your experience — including if you have none.
Applications close Friday 11 September 2026.
WE CONFIRM WE'VE GOT IT
2
You'll get an acknowledgement within [X] days, along with the interview dates so you can plan around them. If you don't hear from us, chase us — forms do occasionally go astray and we'd rather you nudged than assumed.
You'll be booked in for a panel interview
3
Everyone who applies gets an interview with a panel.
Not a shortlist - everyone. It runs about 60 minutes, in person at the club, with a committee panel.
Nobody is appointed on a quiet conversation in a car park.
Interviews will be held Mid-September - Mid-October 2026.
Sometimes a second round
4
For some roles we'll run a second round of interviews. It usually means we have more than one strong candidate for the same team, not that anything went wrong first time. If you're asked back, that's a good sign.
Appointments are made
5
Everyone hears back by Sunday 18 October 2026, successful or not. If the role you applied for goes to someone else, that's the start of a conversation rather than the end of one - there's often an assistant role, a different age group, or something else that suits. We don't want to lose good people over one appointment.
Head coaches choose their assistants
6
Once head coaches are appointed, they can nominate the assistant coaches they want to work with, subject to club approval. A coaching group that actually works together beats one assembled on paper — but every assistant still goes through the same checks, the same accreditation and the same standards as everyone else.
Non-negotiable, for every coaching role
Head coach, assistant coach, however you come into the group - you need a Working with Children Check and current coaching accreditation for the age group you're coaching, both completed before the season starts. There's no version of this we can waive, and it applies equally to someone a head coach personally invited.
What the interview is actually like
It's a conversation, not an exam, and you don't need to prepare a presentation. The panel is trying to understand how you'd run a team of kids, not test your knowledge of the interchange rule.
The sorts of things we'll talk about:
Why this age group
What draws you to this age group, and what you'd want a player to get out of the season.
Mixed ability
How you'd handle a team where some kids have played for years and others have never touched a footy.
Game Time
How you'd make sure every player gets a real game, including in close matches.
Parents
How you'd handle a parent who's unhappy about selection, positions or game time.
A good season
What one looks like to you, if the ladder isn't the answer.
Support
What you'd need from the club to do the job well.
No experience? Say so. Some of our best coaches had never coached before their first interview, and "I don't know yet, but here's how I'd find out" is a perfectly good answer.
START HERE
Three things before you can coach a game
These are league requirements, not club preferences - and all three need to be done before the season starts, not during it. The good news is that the coaching side is free and mostly online.
ACTUALLY RUNNING A SESSION
Session plans and coaching curriculum
This is the part most new coaches worry about - standing in front of eighteen kids on a Tuesday night with no idea what to do for an hour. You don't have to invent it. The AFL has already written the sessions.
COACHING GIRLS
If you're coaching one of our girls' teams
Coaching girls isn't coaching boys with different jumpers. The way a group forms, how feedback lands, what makes a player keep turning up — there are real differences, and they're learnable.
KEEP GETTING BETTER
Coaching development, courses and events
Your Essentials Course gets you on the field. It isn't meant to be the last coaching education you ever do — and most of what's available is free.
We'll publish opportunities here as they come up, so check back through the off-season. If you spot something we've missed, send it to us and we'll add it.
AFL Victoria Coaching Forum
Two days of presentations from AFL and AFLW-level coaches and industry experts. Sessions cover Coaching Women and Girls, skill acquisition, culture and leadership, and game plan and strategy.
Past speakers have included Chris Fagan, Mon Conti and Daisy Pearce.
Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 February 2027.
Free, and it only runs once a year - register early, workshop sessions fill.
KEEP ON LEARNING
Taking your accreditation further
For women coaching, and coaches of girls
Women's Coaching Month
Every July, proudly supported by BHP, Women’s Coaching Month celebrates the women who are shaping the future of coaching across our game.
An annual AFL Victoria push to get more women into coaching, with events and profiles. A good moment to make the leap if you've been thinking about it.
Beyond football
PLAYER SAFETY
First aid, concussion and your responsibilities
Under AFL policy, every training session as well as every match must have a qualified first aid provider present, a first aid kit, rescue and transport equipment, and marked emergency vehicle access. If those aren't there, the session doesn't start. As a coach you should know who your first aid person is before you run your first session.
Concussion & Injury Management module
The AFL's free online module on recognising and managing concussion. It's written for trainers, first aiders and volunteers, and the league doesn't formally require it of coaches — but we expect our coaches to do it. You're usually the closest adult when it happens.
The concussion rules you have to know by heart
You can look most things up. Not this. If a player takes a knock on Tuesday night and you're the only adult who knows what happens next, there is no time to go and read a policy.
Recognise
Suspect a concussion, and you treat it as one. You do not need to be certain, and there does not need to have been a knock to the head.
Remove
Off, immediately — from the match or the training session. A player with a suspected concussion must not return to play that same session. Not for the last five minutes. Not if they say they're fine.
Refer
They must be assessed by a doctor as soon as possible. Tell the parents before they leave the ground, and tell them plainly.
21 Days
The earliest a concussed player can return to play is the 21st day after the concussion, and only with medical clearance after completing a graded loading program. A player concussed on a Saturday misses at least the next two Saturdays. Often longer.
Before contact
A doctor must clear them before they go back to full contact training — not just before a game.
Off-field too
A concussion from skateboarding, another sport or the school playground follows exactly the same return-to-play process.
You will occasionally have a player or a parent push back on this, usually before a big game. The answer is the same every time, and it isn't yours to negotiate: it's the AFL's protocol and the league's by-laws, and the club will back you every time you apply it.
Two things to have before round one
You can look most things up. Not this. If a player takes a knock on Tuesday night and you're the only adult who knows what happens next, there is no time to go and read a policy.
The AFL's four stages of graded return to play saved to your phone, and the HeadCheck app downloaded - our trainers are expected to have it, and it's worth coaches having it too.
THE COACHING YEAR
Dates that matter to coaches
1 November - Accreditation year resets. AFL accreditation points reset on 1 November and the new registration period runs to 31 October. If you're maintaining an accreditation level, this is your clock.
Mid-April - Everything must be done. Accreditation, WWC and league registration all have to be complete before the season starts. Penalties apply to coaches found coaching without the right accreditation. If this is not complete the club will find a stand-in coach for your team.
Every year - All coaching roles reopen. No automatic rollover, for anyone. See the application process at the top of this page.
Friday 11 September - Coach applications for 2027 close.
RULES AND CONDUCT
By Coaching, you are agreeing to
Narre South Saints JFNC Coaching Contract
Club and coach want expectations written down.
Who to talk to
Our Coaching Co-ordinator role is open for season 2027.
Until it's filled, coaching questions and applications go to the Vice President, and anything about registration, accreditation records or WWC goes to the Secretary.
And if you're reading this thinking you could do the Coaching Co-ordinator job — we'd genuinely like to hear from you. It's a real role with real influence over how several hundred kids experience footy, and we'll support whoever takes it.