By David Nagel
James ‘Jimmy’ Munro undoubtedly has the respect of the football world and the hard-at-it midfielder is bringing that priceless commodity to Cora Lynn by the bucket-load this season.
Munro is a leader, a true standard-setter, one of the hardest workers at his craft despite a record that could quite easily see the 29-year-old rest on his laurels somewhat.
He played 156 VFL games for Sandringham (22) and Casey Demons (134), winning three best and fairests at Casey Fields along with a long-awaited premiership in 2022.
To rubber-stamp his standing in the game, Munro was twice named in the VFL Team of the Year in 2019 and ‘21.
During his eight years at Casey, Munro played a handful of local games for his junior club Beaconsfield, before naming Cora Lynn as his home club in 2022.
He played five games across two seasons for the Cobras, before retiring from VFL football and becoming a full-time assistant-coach to Shaun Sparks this season.
He is thoroughly enjoying his first foray into full-time community football.
“I must admit; I’m loving my footy this year,” he said, after the Cobras thrilling win over Nar Nar Goon on Saturday.
“It’s a positive change playing with blokes that you train with on a Tuesday and Thursday; opposed to playing at Casey; where half your list is AFL.
“I’m loving the energy of the young fellas, they’re keeping me young, and I’m getting text messages from those boys to see if I can get to training earlier and earlier to do some craft sessions.
“The buy in has been unbelievable.”
Despite his immense leadership qualities, Munro has never been involved in controlling the magnets on a whiteboard; in any capacity.
He and Sparks work hand-in-hand together during the week, with the off-field coach taking control from 2 to 5 on Saturday.
Developing the youngsters is where Munro sees his main value.
“I’ve never been a coach, but I’m loving it,” he said with a smile.
“Sparksy certainly takes the role on game day; sitting on the bench and overseeing what we’re doing, but I’m really enjoying working with the young fellas, running craft sessions prior to training and helping them develop their footy.
“I had one bloke turning up to craft sessions early, but now we get six to 10 blokes rocking up at 5.30 and getting that work in before training.
“It’s just the basics; ground balls, handballs; just lots of touch and small drills that will maximise our quality at training.”
The Cobras look a fitter and more ferocious unit this year, with Munro putting that down to a rock-solid summer preparation.
“I think we’ve set ourselves up with a really good pre-season,” he explained.
“Obviously I wasn’t here for pre-seasons prior, but we’ve regenerated with younger blokes who probably weren’t in our best 22 at the start of January, but they’ve fought their way in through sheer hard work.
“If you watch our development side play, there’s probably six to 10 blokes that are pushing for senior selection and that’s very healthy for our group.
“We’ve got some really good depth and there’s no burden on any one individual.”
Munro has been impressed with every aspect of Cora Lynn, from first-year president Rohan Marriott…all the way down to the boot-studder!
“I’ve never seen a club like it to be honest,” Munro said, with his eyebrows raised.
“Sparksy and I talk about this; the quality of volunteers is tremendous.
“People ring up to ask if they can help out in the canteen and things like that; I’ve never heard of a local club being like that.
“I’ve just really been enjoying it, the boys are sensational, the netballers are keen on buying in; it just seems to be a really good one-club feel.”
And it’s a club that now demands additional respect; because Jimmy Munro has brought it by the bucket-load.
