By Jonty Ralphsmith
The significance of first-year coach Nick Suppree in leading Coomoora to premiership glory was a pronounced storyline recognised by several Roos post-game.
At a club noted for its connection and squad stability, his willingness to invest time in observing and developing the lower grades has been a key feature of his leadership.
“I would say he’s been the best coach I’ve seen,” Rahoul Pankhania said.
“I appreciate his inclusiveness and he has that enthusiasm and drive, and he has really put in.
“He cares about the people around the club – having that personality and his skill and competitiveness is what we want.”
Suppree missed a few early games as he recovered from a knee injury and never quite hit his straps on-field, averaging 16 with the stick, but formed a balanced leadership combination with skipper Liam Hard.
“He has been someone who has fully committed to the role and the rest,” Hard said.
“He’s the first one to training, he runs the show (during the week) and lets me do my thing on a Saturday.
“I hardly talk at training, he does all the drills and everything else so we’ve got a good little thing going.”
Suppree attributes the rise to Turf 2 to an accumulation of the club’s hard work.
“We’ve worked our arses off for the last couple of years and we finally got the result we wanted today which was awesome,” Suppree said.
“It’s a very tight young group of people together.
“It’s a great place to be around and everyone who has bought in has loved it and doesn’t want to leave which comes from the people which are around the club.”
Hard agreed that the win was a testament to the club, and points to the rise to Turf 2 as being crucial to take the club to the next level.
I’m relieved and stoked – we really needed this one,” he said.
“I didn’t want to think about going up to Turf 2 today because we just needed to get it done.
“I’ve got a few guys lined up to recruit who said Turf 3 wasn’t very appealing but Turf 2 makes it a bit easier to get there and it’s massive for the club.”
