Sport
20 July, 2023
Coby Perry and Matt Johnston announced as Maryborough co-coaches for 2024 season
Maryborough have moved quickly to organise their 2024 Bendigo Football Netball League (BFNL) season, with Coby Perry and Matt Johnston appointed as co-coaches. Perry is continuing his first year of coaching the club, having taken over the reins as...

Maryborough have moved quickly to organise their 2024 Bendigo Football Netball League (BFNL) season, with Coby Perry and Matt Johnston appointed as co-coaches.
Perry is continuing his first year of coaching the club, having taken over the reins as playing-coach in December following the sudden resignation of Rick Andrews, while Johnston steps into the role after a year of being assistant coach.
Club president Kelvin Noonan was clear with the direction he wanted to take by announcing Perry and Johnston as coaches for 2024.
“The club is thrilled to announce Coby and Matt have agreed to co-coach for the 2024 season,” he said.
“We felt it was important to strike while the iron was hot and announce it nice and early, so that the players, supporters and committee were clear as to what the direction of the club was. We’re happy with our coaching structure this season, and we have a plan that is now in its third year.”
Noonan believes that with a group of talented under 18s coming through the ranks, he expects more improvement, especially with the club making their move to lock in Perry and Johnston.
“We believe there will be some on-field improvements next season. That’s our plan,” he said.
“What this early announcement for next year does it allows our two coaches to set up a regime or structure to talk to existing players to make sure they are committed to the club, and add players to the list to ensure the club is moving forward.
“We know we need more quality players to improve, and help these younger players coming up through the under 18s, and this year is a great example of that — we’ve had six or seven come up and play senior football regularly, and the benefit of that is starting to show.
“We believe the players we have invested in fairly heavily will continue to improve.”
Perry said the announcement was one that has been brewing since December, with the original plan to co-coach only stopped by Johnston’s university commitments.
“I have loved the start of my coaching journey and I can’t wait to continue that with Matt as co-coach, along with the club and players,” he said.
“Long-term, the vision was always to link up with Matt and co-coach. He couldn’t quite commit to it this year with his university commitments, but he’s perfect to have regardless, and another person who has great experience to offer to the young players.
“It’s awesome to have the stability for the club with two local guys as co-coaches. It’s perfect for the youth coming through, and also for the wider group, having that continuity going into 2024.”
Johnston shared similar sentiments to Perry.
“It’s a really exciting opportunity for me, personally,” he said.
“Coming back to the club this year, there have been so many positives on and off the field, so to get the opportunity to step up to the next level, taking on the co-coaching with Coby, it’s a really exciting time for both myself and the club.
“Going back almost 12 months, we floated the idea of co-coaching, but my personal circumstances didn’t allow me to take on the role.
“I stepped up as an assistant under Coby this year, and to join as a co-coach is great for the stability of the club moving forward.
“The playing group is pretty set, and we hope to continue to grow it and add some pieces as we go.”
Perry’s coaching journey has seen the club move closer to breaking a 41-game losing run. While the club’s percentage is slightly lower than last season, the club has also been in front in four games during the last quarter.
Perry says he has big plans to ensure the club improves in the long term.
“We don’t just want to be competitive, we want to play BFNL finals in a few years, so we need to add some key recruits and continue to develop our youth,” he said.
“We’ve been disappointed to lose four games when we’ve been up at three-quarter-time. Adding some key recruits will help us convert those into wins, with some experience across the board.
“Getting that mentorship will also be crucial, helping the young guys with their development.”
Johnston said that the performance of younger players, such as Taj Bond and Lucas Hurse, who were two key performers in their 15-point loss to Kangaroo Flat last Saturday, gave great optimism for the development program going forward.
“I think it’s a real strength of Coby and myself in terms of developing the younger players, and we take a lot of pride in how we handle situations with those guys,” he said.
“Brady Neill is doing a terrific job with the under 18s and hopefully we can lock in a finals spot soon. Cam Skinner, with the 16s, is also doing a tremendous job.
“We would love to continue the development of the younger players to ensure they become really good senior footballers.
“There’s been huge positives from the playing list side of things. There are a lot of talented young players, you only need look at the players such as Taj Bond and Lucas Hurse and their performance on the weekend.
“There is a good group in the 19-21 age bracket that are also getting a good opportunity to play consistent senior footy.”
Both Perry and Johnston confirmed that they’ll be looking to lock away the club coaching panel and playing list immediately.
“One thing we have done well this year was to appoint an experienced panel of coaches at senior level and throughout. Now that Matt and I have the go-ahead, we will look to do that straight away and come through with some announcements shortly,” Perry said.