Seniors Mid-Season Update

Can you believe it!

Late November was yesterday, now we are eleven games into season 2026 with those iconic training nights of a Melbourne July welcoming our coaches and players on Tuesday and Thursday nights at Jack Barker Oval. I am not the first coach to use the expression, but welcome everyone to, “Big Boy” month.

After taking the reigns from two-time premiership coach, Justin Pickering, I went to work on maintaining everything that ‘Pickers’ and his assistant coaches had worked on with the players to get those flags, whilst adding layers to keep improving the group, both individually and collectively. With so many talented players on our list that have played at the higher levels, including AFL, we have and will continue to achieve the best balance possible across the coaches building the framework and the players continuing to take ownership of the process during training and matches. We are extremely fortunate that these players that have played or play at the higher level are completely invested in the Rosellas when they are training or playing at Cheltenham. This is a great reflection of the Family/Work/Footy culture that exists at JBO and was built over many years by Adam King, Des Ryan, Pickers and many others. My responsibility is to provide an elite football program, whilst adhering to that FWF Rosellas culture. To quote Kingy, the “F” in footy is for Fun.

The senior coaching team of 2026, again is structured to reflect the footy IQ that we are so fortunate to have across our playing group, but I must highlight again, due to the culture and respect within the group, everyone is invested in what we are trying to do and discussions on how to keep getting better are always all inclusive and highly valued. The team before self thing, are not just words within this group, they understand what they do for the team will be the difference between winning a fourth flag or not. Using vision to highlight a block to open up a leading lane for another player ensures that players are valued and recognised for team acts, not just kicks and marks. We are very fortunate to have our assistant coaches, Chris “Swoop” Neophitou , Adrian “Goobs” Hale , Alistair “Licka” Garlick and Tony “Giggsy” McGarrigle. On match day, I’m very pleased to say that our coaching team and bench works exceptionally well. Everyone is encouraged to give their input, and it is highly valued. The more information we can gather and process in real time, the more relevant our instruction can be to the playing group. We are spoilt for choice of match day runners, including Sam Lonie and Rob Cathcart, both former premiership players that are respected by the players and an extension of the coaching group.

We have moved away from “traditional” line coaching during the week, so all coaches have input and holistic development, with areas of expertise. An example of expertise is Swoop’s weekly analysis of the opposition for the upcoming match. He puts long hours into vision and statistical analysis to give our players best knowledge of how to win against our next opponent. On match day, we then come back into lines with Adrian handling backs, Dylan Weickhardt handling mids, Chris handling forwards, Alistair handling the board / rotations, and Tony handling team management,game day stats and GPS.

Training and match day doesn’t happen without our Physio and her team of sports trainers. We are very fortunate to have Sarah Matthews from Base Physio and Performance at the Rosellas, ensuring our players are getting the best preparation and better opportunity to be available to play again after injury.

No football club, not even the Rosellas, can operate without volunteers, and we are incredibly fortunate to have some incredible people contributing their time behind the scenes. To James “Billy” Brownless ,his committee members, and everyone who helps in ways big and small — thank you. A special and very necessary thanks to club legend Steve Ellery “Arch”, your efforts often go unseen but are essential to the ongoing success of our club. Your support is highly valued and forever appreciated.

Thanks thus far to our loyal Rosellas supporters who cheer us on each week. We are really going to need you more than ever over this next block of four games. There is nothing like the roar from behind the goals at JBO, but please do your best to get along to away games. It never will go unnoticed by our players.

A huge acknowledgement and thanks to all our sponsors and Cheltonians. Your contribution plays a vital role in helping our club put our team on the ground each and every Saturday.

We now head out of the mid-season break to round 12, two thirds of the way to another finals series. After the eleven games, we sit in 3^rd place on the ladder with 8 wins and 3 losses. For a team that has won the last three premierships, there are no easy games, every opposition wants to measure itself against the best, and at the time of writing this team is still the champion team with a hunger for the taste of the ultimate succes…another premiership. Statistically, across disposals, kicks, marks, handballs, contested possessions, clearance, inside 50s, tackles and goals, we rank in the top three and number one in some of these. That not only suggests, but is proof, that Cheltenham is still the best team and extremely hard to play against. This group of players now have the opportunity to be part of something that’s never been done before, four premierships on the trot. There is a huge amount of work, commitment, sacrifice and luck required for that to happen, but we are on the path to the top of the mountain again in 2026.

Let’s go Zellas.

Brad Berry
Senior Coach.