Bundoora appoints former Bomber Ricky Dyson as coach for 2017 Northern Football League season
RICKY Dyson’s inside knowledge of Bundoora helped him stand out from a competitive field to land the Northern Football League club’s coaching role for 2017.
The former Essendon defender has played 51 matches for the Bulls since his AFL career came to an end after the 2012 season.
Dyson will return to the field next year as a playing coach after he was one of 34 past and present Bombers suspended for the entire 2016 campaign.
Bundoora football manager Roy Vogles said Dyson’s experience at the elite level set him apart from the club’s other coaching applicants.
But it was ultimately his rapport with the Bulls’ players which prompted the club to promote Dyson to fill the void left by Phil Plunkett’s resignation.
“Guys could have come with more coaching credentials,” Vogles said.
“Obviously it’s his novice year. But I think the hardest thing for any coach coming to a new club, especially at suburban level, is getting the players on side.
“Ricky has definitely got, 100 per cent, the players behind him.”
Dyson was set to be a senior assistant coach at Bundoora this year before the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned an AFL anti-doping tribunal verdict in January.
“He was basically the senior assistant coach with the intention of weaning him into the job,” Vogles said.
Meanwhile, veteran forward Gary Moorcroft, who will turn 41 next year, will play on after taking out the NFL Division 1 goalkicking this year with 73 majors.
“He has signalled that he is playing and why wouldn’t you when you have just come off being the leading goalkicker in the competition,” Vogles said.
Bundoora bowed out of the premiership race this year after a six-point semi-final loss to Greensborough.
Plunkett announced after the match he was stepping down after four years in the top job.
“He was fortunate that he had success in his first year and ultimately won the premiership in his first year with us,” Vogles said.
“Since then he has brought on some new kids, developed the younger ones.
“It’s a mutual respect for one another, he’s created history at our club and he’s part of that history.”