DONVALE has announced club-great Kevin Collins as its senior coach for season 2020.
A dual senior premiership coach with the Magpies, Collins (pictured above) led the club to flags in 1994 in Division 2 and 1996 in the top-tier.
More information below in the official club statement:
Donvale is excited to announce the appointment of our senior men’s coach for season 2020. Coaching legend, club life member and multiple premiership coach, Kevin Collins, is returning home to Donvale to take the reins and lead our club into 2020 and beyond.
Kevin (or ‘Collo’ as he is universally known) is one of the most decorated people in the history of our club, is a doyen of coaching in EFL circles and we are delighted that he is rejoining us in this important capacity.
Kevin has coached Donvale to senior premierships in 1994 (EFL Division 2) and in 1996 led us to our only EFL Division 1 flag. Kevin was a long-time Donvale junior coach from 2005 to 2012 , coaching many of the sides that his son (and current Gold Coast Sun) Sam played in.
Kevin was a key member of the Box Hill coaching panel in the Victorian Football League from 2014-2016, taking primary responsibility for the development side.
Kevin returned to Donvale for one year in 2017 to help our club by coaching our re-formed under-19 side. To the surprise of precisely no-one, he took that under-19 group to a premiership.
Kevin is well-known in the community as a long-time secondary school teacher. He combines these skills as an educator, with a deep knowledge of football (and some considerable skill at story telling) to create a unique coaching experience for players. We believe he will be a wonderful mentor for our young group of footballers.
We would like to thank Brendan McCormack for leading our club as interim senior coach during the second half of this season. Brendan always puts Donvale first and has played a key role in helping bring ‘Collo’ on board. Brendan will revert back to an assistant coaching role in 2020 and will be a key source of support to ‘Collo’ and the rest of the coaching panel.
Of course, Brendan and the team still have a big game to win this weekend and hopefully then finals for our senior side (our reserves and under-19s are both already certain of finals qualification). More on that in tomorrow’s footy newsletter.