Paul Corrigan will bring a strong ability to build relationships to his new role as VFL Coach, according to General Manager of Football Operations Rob Kerr.
The former Geelong player has been a part of the Bombers coaching set up since 2013 and was announced as the Club’s VFL Coach at the VFL Best and Fairest night last week.
“Paul’s coached at senior level outside the AFL system at three different clubs and had premiership success,” Kerr said.
“Post his playing career at Geelong, he was very keen to get into the coaching space and he’s done that over a long period of time now.
“He’s also stood in as VFL coach a couple of times last year so he comes to the role with a really rich history of experiences as a coach.
“He works really well with the younger players and also forms good relationships which is important for the older players who occasionally come back to the VFL and are looking to improve their own footy.”
Corrigan is the latest Essendon coach to be given an opportunity in a different role.
His predecessor Matthew Egan looked after the forward line and backline before taking on the VFL role.
While Hayden Skipworth started in the VFL before moving to the AFL set-up where he initially looked after the midfield stoppages and this season moved to the forward line.
“We have a philosophy that people like to develop and like to extend themselves,” Kerr said.
“We look for opportunities to give people the opportunity to expand their skill set.
“I think it’s important, particularly given football clubs are fairly flat structures, that if you can move people’s roles around a bit and align that with their own development, then hopefully that leads to them performing well and being motivated.”
The appointment of Corrigan sees a restructure of the football department.
The Head of Development position that was occupied by Egan last season will now be split among three Performance Coaches (Mark Harvey, Hayden Skipworth and Guy McKenna).
“We’ve structured things a little differently and part of that is a result of the way John (Worsfold) likes to set his coaching structure up,” Kerr said.
“In the traditional model you might have an Assistant Coach that looks after the forwards and an Assistant Coach who might look after the defenders – John calls those roles ‘Performance Coaches’.
“A Performance Coach’s role is to be across every aspect of the players development. So his job is to develop a player who can come into the AFL team and execute the AFL game plan. So the Performance Coach has got to be on top of a players’ welfare, diet, fitness, their skills etc.
“We feel with that structure puts a stronger emphasis from the old ‘Line Coach’ on to a players development.
“We’ll also have a Head of Learning and Growth who’ll be involved in making sure the processes we’ve got from a development point of view, for both players and staff, are robust enough for us all going forward.”
