Rupertswood has announced Brad Fox as its coach for the next three Essendon District Football League seasons.
This announcement follows the resignation of former coach Arron Bray.
Fox coached at Bendigo Football League side Gisborne last season.
He was previously at Rupertswood as a coach and assistant coach for 12 years starting back in 2008 with the club’s Auskick program right through to coaching its under 15’s side in 2019.
His appointment reunites him with a number of those junior premiership players that have since debuted in our senior team over the last two years.
“I did remind them that they know me as a junior coach, they don’t know me yet as a senior coach, it’s not exactly the same,” he said.
“You have to bring an additional skill set into senior coaching… but having said that any level of sport is how to get better.
“So the teaching element and the bringing exposure to them to the next level of thinking and execution in footy will be exciting to do.”
Fox’s football experience includes 21 senior AFL games with Essendon and Richmond, and also an involvement with the Brisbane Lions in their Premiership 3-peat 2001-2003 as opposition scout and analyst for senior coach Leigh Matthews.
At local level he has coached or assistant coached football for a total of 26 seasons including premierships at Gisborne, Keilor and Rupertswood. Fox has also played in 6 Premierships including a hat-trick at Gisborne, and one with Keilor in the EDFL.
While Rupertswood was a competitive side in division 1 this season, reaching a preliminary final, through Fox’s experience he has learnt every year is a fresh start.
“Because you never know how your opposition has changed in terms of their list,” he said.
“We’re going through the process now of looking at our list and who we have and who me might bring in.
“I really rate loyalty, and I’m not looking to disrupt loyalty for players with clubs they are at.
“But there are players that can’t quite get the opportunity that they deserve at the clubs they’re at, and they’re the ones I want to talk to.
“We’ll be a fairly young list which will come with enthusiasm, but we’ll have a balance of 25, 26 year olds with a bit more experience to help lead them.”
While you never know what the competition will present, Fox is taking an optimistic approach to the 2024 season.
“You have to start every season looking to win enough games to qualify for finals,” he said.
“If you do that early enough in the year, then you look to win enough games to earn the double chance and finish in the top three.
“So, that’s the ambition to go in with.
“But ambitions and goals become irrelevant if you don’t do the work to achieve them, so as much as we can be optimistic and want certain things, it’s wanting to do that work that gets the result, that’s what we need to focus on.
“We’ll want to win games and we want to make finals and we want to have an opportunity of being really successful, but it all starts with the work.
“That’s the focus in the early days, is let’s do the work, let’s be better, individually be better, collectively be better.”
