Newly appointed General Manager Sebastian Spagnuolo is ready for the challenges that await him and the club this year, along with continuing the legacy former GM Craig Lees has left behind.
Announcing his resignation and relocation to AFL Cairns, Lees’ news at first came as a shock to Spagnuolo.
“I was surprised, but with a young family myself I understood Craig’s decision to take the opportunity,” Spagnuolo said.
“I’m very humbled and excited to be able to follow on from Craig, and I have great respect for the effort and hard work he has put in to get the club to where it is right now.”
Having worked under Lees for the past two-and-a-bit years, Spagnuolo has felt Lees’ influence on him immensely.
“He has always supported me since the day I first joined the club; he’s shown great ability to step back and trust the decisions I’ve made, which I believe is a sign of a great leader.” Spagnuolo said.
Joining Coburg FC in November 2014, Spagnuolo initially began here as a forward line coach for the Development League. After a season in this role, he noticed the club’s recruitment had areas for improvement.
“I sat down with Craig and Peter (German) and floated the idea that I could transition from coaching into a List Manager’s position,” he said.
“Once I had their approval, I set out to create a program that ensured we were capturing as much info about potential Coburg players as possible.”
“2016 was the full first year of that program and there were some great learnings. It will continue in 2017 and will hopefully get better and better each year.”
These past two roles have been beneficial to Spagnuolo as he feels they have semi-prepared him for this new chapter as GM; coaching taught him a lot about what the players go through and the VFL environment they work in, while list management gave him a wide perspective into the challenges of being a stand-alone club.
“They (the roles) both taught me a lot about what we do have as a club and how appealing we are to players,” said Spagnuolo.
“I believe they set me up for the football side of things, but for the business side that’s probably my background; in sales, and leading teams and managing departments.”
While having just finished his first week on the job, which included shadowing Lees’ last days and learning off him, Spagnuolo is excited for what 2017 holds.
“I’m looking forward to the teams’ fortunes improving on-field, but also the club getting in an even stronger position off-field as well.”
“We all know we have something exciting here at Piranha Park at the moment, so it’s up to myself and our team to continue to develop and grow along with the club.”
With round one of the 2017 season just three weeks away, Spagnuolo hopes that everyone in the Coburg Football Club community can feel and share in the positivity coming out of the club at the moment.
“It’s such an exciting time to be at Coburg FC. We have a young group of players that we should all support and get behind in 2017 and beyond,” Spagnuolo said.
With 2017 promising to be a very exciting year for the Lions, Spagnuolo had just one last message:
“To all of the Coburg FC people, I am looking forward to meeting you all in due course.”
“To our past players, our fantastic sponsors, our proud members and fans, our senior and junior players, our staff and board members and every other person of the wider Coburg FC family; now is a fantastic time to get behind our club.”
“I encourage you to buy a membership, get to our games, cheer for our young men, attend club functions and bring along new supporters; if you’re already doing this, thank you.”
“Let’s make 2017 a big one, and together we will Hear The Lions Roar!”
Don’t forget to come down to RAMS Arena (Highgate) this Saturday to watch the Lions play their first practice match against Werribee, with the Seniors starting at 2pm and the Development side starting at 11am. Purchase your 2017 membership now by heading to coburgfc.com.au/membership.
