There’ll be a familiar face in the VFL coaches' box this season beside new Footscray coach Steve Grace.
Rohan Smith was appointed Development Manager in October, a wide ranging position that will see him overseeing the Club’s development program, a job that includes a key match day role with Footscray.
“[I’ll be] looking after the first to four year players, but predominantly the first and second yearers - looking after the development program, and the development coaches are under me, Jamie Maddox and Jordan Russell, Smith said
“There’s a [also] match day role with the VFL, to help Steve Grace which I’m really looking forward to.
“It’s been a little bit of a different transition for me but it’s been really exciting – I’m working with young kids, it’s been fantastic.”
Smith’s first game in the Footscray polo will be the reigning premiers’ first pre-season hit out against Richmond under lights at Victoria University Whitten Oval on March 10.
Among the group doing battle with the Tigers that night will likely be a handful of players taken in the 2016 NAB AFL Draft, and it’s part of Smith’s role to ensure that they are settled off the field so they can perform on it.
“To come into the footy club for the first time, you don’t really know what’s going on, and if you’ve got a person that can give you a little bit of guidance and some help, that's important, he said.
“Along with Brent Prismall, our Player Welfare Manager who has been fantastic not only for me but the players; getting them settled, getting them host families, helping them settle into a house, settling into a routine, helping them get a car, getting their licence – it’s been great, I’ve really enjoyed it.
“It’s really important that we settle them as quick as we can because the more settled they are off the field, it settles them in their training and gives them a little bit of a heads up.”
Footscray will open the pre-season against Richmond on March 3 at VUWO, Collingwood at the Holden Centre on March 24, before returning home to face Essendon on April 1.
