To my Coburg family,
It is with a heavy and torn heart that I leave my post as Senior Coach at Coburg Football Club.
I haven’t made this decision lightly, and it is one that, within my heart, still doesn’t sit comfortably with me and likely never will, but the opportunity to secure full time employment in football and therefore support my family is one that logically, I could not turn down.
In my most recent speech at the 2022 Jim Sullivan Medal night, I spoke about the opportunities and good fortunes that have been presented to me, both in and outside of football, via what I have learned through the people, culture and history of this great club.
I elaborated and said that “this club is the provider of opportunity. It owes nobody anything, yet we as custodians and stakeholders owe it and each other everything. We owe it not because we have to, but because we get to.”
In September 2013, I attended a trial day down at McDonald Reserve on Bell Street at 8am in the morning to earn a spot to attend the pre-season ahead of 2014 – our first season back as standalone club after a 13 year alignment with Richmond Football Club.
Six years later, September 2019, I was appointed Senior Coach of the Coburg Football Club.
The greatest lesson that I learned from my time at Coburg is that if you are willing to invest into a place above and beyond the expectations of your role and responsibilities, it will pay you back in ways you could never imagine.
I will be forever indebted and grateful for the opportunity that this proud club gave me, the faith shown in me to lead the club by Alex Sapurmas and his board in the coaching space for the past three years and for providing me the chance to continue to progress my career and to support my family.
I thank Peter German for seeing something in me and providing me with my first opportunity at this great club, both as a player and a coach. I also thank Germo for teaching me about the history of the Coburg Football Club and what it means to represent and be a Coburg person.
I also wish to thank Sebastian Spagnuolo who I consider not only someone whom I have had the pleasure of working alongside and calling a colleague, seeing day to day the tireless effort and energy he pours into making the Coburg Football Club a better and more successful place, but deeper than that, someone whom I call a friend who has always supported me the person. The club could not be in better hands.
I would also like to thank all the players I have been fortunate to work alongside and coach over the past three years as Senior Coach as well as the two years as Assistant Coach. I hope that in some way I was able to make your Coburg Football Club experience worthwhile and that I have left a lasting impression on you as you have for me.
My ambition when taking the position as Senior Coach (and any leaders ambition I imagine) was to leave the club, the people whom I worked alongside, the team and the
environment in a better place than where I found it. Whether I have achieved that or not is ultimately up to others to judge and decide on, but what I can say, hand on heart, is that I gave everything in the pursuit of doing so, that I gave my all for the Coburg Football Club as a player and even more so as a coach to leave the club in a better place.
Having the privilege of coaching the Coburg Football Club was never a job for me – it was an honour and a sense of duty to respect the past whilst inspiring a better future. It is what makes it incredibly difficult to move on because this was never just a job, it is my home, my club and the people within it that I care so deeply about and while I move on from an official role within the club, I will always, always, be a Coburg person at heart.
Finally, thank you to all the people involved in the club – staff, volunteers, members, supporters, sponsors and any other stakeholders – I will always remember you and be one of you. You are genuine people, Coburg people, who only want the best for our footy club and our community, and ultimately what I’ve found out through this process, is you want what’s best for me and have done nothing but support me. It sums up who we are and what we have created.
You all made me proud that you entrusted me with your club.
While I am saddened to be moving on, I know that our club couldn’t be in any better position to achieve great success, both on and off field, and hopefully I have played a small part in that.
I am personally happy to answer any questions people connected to the club may have regarding this situation.
Please reach out via my personal email – andrewlsturgess@gmail.com
Love to all
Go Burgers
Andrew Sturgess
