Tara Murray
A year out of coaching did nothing to curb the enthusiasm to coach for new Sunbury Kangaroos senior men’s coach Shanon Carroll.
After a year out of coaching, Carroll was on Wednesday, announced as the Essendon District Football League club’s new coach.
Carroll was a three-time EDFL division 2 coach of the year at Moonee Valley, including winning a premiership in the shortened 2021 season.
Before he was a co-coach at Airport West and coached juniors at Aberfeldie and reserves at Sunshine.
Carroll said he was keen to get back into coaching.
“Not having a job and having been involved with football for so long, I think the competitive juices took over,” he said.
“It was more a case of putting in for some jobs that really suited me and this was one that I really looked at, I thought this is a really good fit for me
“The club, especially the age demographic going forward and the players coming through the junior ranks as well as in the 18s. I’m really excited about it.”
Carroll said it was the age group demographic of the group that really attracted him to the role. He said the core group of players were between 21-26, while there were 12 under-18.5s to come up into the senior program next year.
“There’s going to be some mistakes from the young guys… They will know from day one that no one means to make mistakes and we’re all here for one purpose and that is to help this club to grow again and hopefully go back up to division 1 as soon as possible.
“It’s not the be all end [going straight back up]. All we really want is to educate our players and once we do eventually go up, we are sustainable and stay up.”
Carroll said he watched a couple of games of the side this year, and he coached against them in 2019 when the Kangaroos beat Moonee Valley in the grand final.
He said injuries took their toll on the side, making it hard to get any continuity. The side won just one game this year and will be relegated to division 2 for next season.
“Having 55 play senior football… “There wasn’t a hell of a lot except consistent output when the side is changing rapidly like that,” he said.”
“I was impressed with the endeavour.”
Carroll said with the side coming back down to division 2, he had a good idea of the competition and what to expect from the other sides.
He said while many clubs struggled when coming back to division 2, he had confidence the group would put out some good performances.
“I’m going to make sure I encourage them play their strengths,” he said. “I think a few sides will be shocked how quick we can move it,
“I just want to leave the place in a better spot than when I got there. I will be happy with that.”
