David Ashkar will take charge of a new-looking coaching line-up with the Australia Post Queensland Scorpions in 2011.
Friday, 3 December, 2010
David Ashkar (pictured) will take charge of a new-looking coaching line-up with the Australia Post Queensland Scorpions U18 side in 2011.
Set for his second year at the helm, the former Southport premiership ace and Labrador senior coach will have an entirely new support crew.
The new faces will be Patrick Garner, Jarrod Field, Paul Sherwood and Brad Edwards.
They will replace Matthew Kennedy, now with the Gold Coast Suns, Andrew Johnston, who is tied up with the Gold Coast AFL Academy, and Robbie Amos, who for personal reasons will assume a lesser role as a match day assistant.
Garner, a former AIS/AFL Academy graduate and Brisbane Lions draftee whose AFL career was cut down by major knee troubles, will take over as backline coach.
Having done some work with the Western Taipans development program, he will step up from a similar role with the Young Scorpions U16 side this year,
Field will have a significant change in coaching direction after a standout second year as coach of Labrador in the QAFL, having taken the Tigers to a heart-breaking loss to Morningside in the grand final.
The long-time Gold Coast Stingrays mentor stepped down from his role at Labrador for family reasons and was targeted by QAFL officials keen to keep him involved in the coaching program.
New to the Queensland development pathway will be Sherwood, himself a former product of the system.
He played 70 senior games for Morningside from 1994-98, representing Queensland in ’98, before an outstanding career with Glenelg in the SANFL.
He Played 190 games with Glenelg before his retirement in 2008, winning the club B&F in 2001 and representing SA against WA in 2003, and has coached in a minor league in SA before deciding to return home.
Take charge of the ‘talls’ with the Scorpions in 2011 will be former Fitzroy and Brisbane Bears AFL player and Morningside stalwart Brad Edwards.
He, too, is a former member of the Young Scorpions coaching panel and has coached successfully at U18 level at Morningside.
Bob Batty, AFLQ Talent Manager, explained Kennedy’s joint role of forward line coach and talls coach has been split this year between Sherwood and Edwards to provide a better outcome.
In similar developments with the Young Scorpions under returning senior coach Ray Windsor, Paul Grentell, former senior coach at the Western Magpies, will step into the role vacated by Garner as the U16 backline coach, while Chris Smith (midfield coach) and John Seebohm (forwards coach) will return.
