Harper Sercombe
Melton has found its replacement for Ballarat Football League premiership coach Aaron Tymms.
Tymms departed the club following its one point elimination final loss to East Point in early September.
Troy Scoble has taken the role at the Bloods, and has big shoes to fill following Tymms’ successful reign at the club, which included two grand final appearances and a premiership last year.
However, Scoble comes to the Bloods with a wealth of experience, as he coached Riddells Creek to a Riddell District Football League premiership in 2013, coached Talent League side Western Jets from 2016-18, and more recently has been an assistant coach at Geelong in the Victorian Football League, finishing at the Cats at the start of this year due to work commitments.
“I had no plans to coach local footy again,” Scoble said.
“But Melton is one of those clubs that has a really attractive list, all of the players are really keen to learn and develop their footy .
“So it’s a good opportunity to be able to add some value.
“One of the attractors to the role was that they are a close to fully local footy side and the club really wants to continue that and wants to continue to develop their own.
“And that aligns with what I believe in, if you’re able to develop your own players that can only help your footy club.”
After spending the last few years within AFL pathways such as the VFL and Talent League, Scoble’s has a passion for development and knows the ways in which it is done at the highest levels.
“A lot of that expertise I’ve gained is around development,” he said.
“I’ve seen the benefits of what development can do, everyone gets fixated on the outcome of winning, but I think if you invest your time and your mindset into the development of your group, that stuff can take care of itself.
“I’ve gained a lot of skills in the space so to come back locally and put them in place, yeah, it’ll be a big focus because I think every player on the list has got an opportunity to develop their footy.”
Whilst at the Jets, Scobes coached a three-peat premiership with the Bloods’ under 16 and 17 age group and which earned him the 2017 AFL Victoria, Stan Alves youth coach of the year award.
To return to Melton to work with some of the players he coached as juniors was another incentive to return.
“The opportunity to coach the guys I coached through junior footy and certainly in my involvement when I was coaching at the Western Jets was definitely an attractor.
“But I didn’t really have any ambition to coach throughout the year, I hadn’t thought much about it.
“When the opportunity was proposed by the club and you start to have a look at it, you think this would actually be a really good club to coach.
“The committee is really stable, the club’s financially sound and they have a good playing list, when you look at those things, you think, ‘oh this is great’.”
