Opportunity too good for Ditti to resist.
The Coburg Football Club would like to announce that three time Jim Sullivan Medallist Daniel Venditti will be departing the club, after receiving a work promotion based in the United Kingdom. Venditti announced his decision to the playing group following training last night.
As the Coburg Football Club have gone from the struggling Richmond-aligned Tigers to the flourishing stand-alone Lions, Daniel Venditti has had a huge impact at the club in his four seasons.
Originally from Western Australia, Venditti managed 41 senior games across six seasons with WAFL side Perth, having arrived at the club after playing his junior football with zoned local club Maddington.
Following the end of the 2011 season where he played in the losing grand final for Perth’s reserves, Venditti arrived at the City Oval after moving to Melbourne from Perth for work. Weighing up whether to play local or state level, he initially had doubt as to whether or not to play VFL, after having struggled to establish himself in the WAFL.
“I was probably keen on a fresh start and wanted to play at the highest level possible, with no AFL ambitions, and I didn’t know anyone but the fitness coach at the time. I could’ve played local for the cash, but I wanted to compete and I had the opportunity to start fresh.”
Rob Inness, who at the time was the clubs High Performance Manager, encouraged Venditti to sign the contract. After beginning the season in the newly named Development League competition, Venditti would be in and out of the senior side early in 2012 before establishing himself as a permanent fixture in the second half of the season. As a result, he managed to finish third in the clubs best and fairest behind Willie Wheeler and Leigh Masters. In what was a turbulent year for the club, his leadership and mentoring played a vital role for the clubs development league side, especially in the finals series, going on to win the premiership.
“Senior opportunities were there early on, players were welcoming with a good culture, and I felt right at home. While there were some professionalism early on in my time at the club, the improvement and change has been well and truly noticed under the guidance and leadership of Germo, Leesy and Skip over the past two years. Now when you say you play football for Coburg, you say that with a sense of pride being a stand-alone club, where in previous seasons while being aligned that wasn’t quite the case.”
Going into the 2013 season, the last as Coburg being under the Richmond alignment saw a change to the alignment rules, and as a result it saw a considerable amount of key on field personnel depart the club, most notably then reigning Jim Sullivan Medallist and fellow on-baller Willie Wheeler. While Venditti had considered as to whether or not he’d continue at the club himself, he stayed on and as a result earnt a position in the clubs leadership group, and went onto play every senior game of 2013, the only Coburg listed player to do so. The 2013 season saw him win his first of three Jim Sullivan Medals, and despite being awarded the clubs best and fairest at that point, he was still unsure about his football.
With 2013 senior coach Tim Clarke to coach the new Richmond side in the VFL in 2014, there was a possibility that Venditti, as well as a few others would form part of the squad. However as a result, he pledged his loyalty to Coburg under new coach Peter German as a result, and was more than determined to help the club through its David verses Goliath battle as a stand-alone club. Elevated to the vice-captaincy with Ben Clifton for 2014, it resulted in him winning yet another best and fairest award, this time tying with Adam Saad who went on to be later drafted by the Gold Coast Suns.
Despite off season hip surgery which saw a lengthy layoff in rehab throughout the clubs pre-season campaign, 2015 saw anything looking like Venditti hadn’t missed a beat throughout the season. While it arguably could be said 2015 was the best season of all of his three Jim Sullivan Medal seasons, Venditti was considered yet again stiff to miss out on the VFL’s Team of the Year for the second season running. Once again, the teammate he would share the award with- Michael Hartley would be drafted, this time to Essendon as a result. Venditti’s third Jim Sullivan Medal saw him join esteemed company- he became only the third player behind Ray Jordan and Laurie Burt to win three best and fairests for the club, and only the second after Jordan to win them consecutively.
However, while Venditti had all but planned to go around once again in 2016, this time potentially even as the clubs captain following Nick Carnell’s retirement, a work promotion offer in the United Kingdom came up in early January. Having thought long and hard about the opportunity, Venditti saw it too good of an offer to refuse.
“The club will always hold a special place for me- it gave me a second chance at state league footy. Coming from Perth to a place where I knew no one at all, I felt at home straight away. Although I’m someone who overthinks a bit and wish I trained harder, had managed to play 100 games for the club, and managed to play finals and have success however with what the clubs got in front of it at the 
moment, I have no doubt that it will happen however its disappointing that I won’t be a part of it.”
While the loss of Venditti creates a hole in the midfield, it gives plenty of others the opportunity to step up, especially many of the clubs youngsters to make their mark. Senior Coach Peter German gave his thoughts on Venditti: “When I first arrived at the club to me he was just another player, I coached against Coburg the year before where they struggled, I knew he was one of the better players and I didn’t have a full appreciation of what his strengths and weaknesses were. Since I’ve been at the club, I’ve had more of an appreciation of his ability on the field, as well as off the field- a good leader, a really good person to talk to, and a good friend to anyone at the club. His consistency at the club, week in week out without changing much to his game certainly has him amongst my top three players that I’ve coached at Coburg.”
Though to a degree it creates a dint in German’s plans for the 2016 season, he necessarily isn’t concerned too much with Venditti’s departure. “It gives players a chance to step up and it gives someone else a chance to come up and grab a spot in the side, we’ve recruited well with good youth. It gives the likes of Errol McConnell and Lachie Johns a chance to step up as inside midfielders. Alongside no Carnell and Clifton, it’s changed the whole dynamics of the squad- we’ve had 50% of our squad change, and the loss of three key leaders demands players to come to the fore and demands players to step up on and off the field within their own right.”
While Daniel has undoubtedly given plenty to the Coburg Football Club in his four seasons at the club, we thank him for the contribution he has given. Without a doubt, the club is far better off with it.
Thank you, Ditti.
Daniel Venditti- the facts
27/3/1987
Recruited from: Maddington (WA)/Perth (WAFL)
Perth (2006-2011)
Senior WAFL games: 41
Senior WAFL goals: 11
Coburg (2012-2015)
Senior VFL games: 67
Senior VFL goals: 30
Honours
Jim Sullivan Medallist 2013, 2014, 2015
Leadership group 2013-2015
Vice-captain 2014-2015
