{"id":243281,"date":"2025-10-27T03:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T03:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243281\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T03:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T03:14:09","slug":"dogs-promote-flag-swan-to-coach-vfl-team-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243281\/","title":{"rendered":"Dogs promote flag Swan to coach VFL team in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__summary\">\n                The reigning VFL premier will have a new coach next season\n            <\/p>\n<p>                                Alex Johnson at the Western Bulldogs in 2023. Picture: westernbulldogs.com.au<\/p>\n<p>WESTERN Bulldogs development coach Alex Johnson will step up as Footscray coach in 2026, replacing the departing Stewart Edge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Johnson joined the football department at Whitten Oval at the end of 2023, five years after his time at Sydney came to a cruel end due to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afl.com.au\/news\/140512\/johnson-heartbreak-it-looks-like-an-acl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">five anterior cruciate ligament tears<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old become a premiership player in 2012 at the age of 20 but didn\u2019t play again at AFL level for 2136 days and only added two games after that famous Grand Final appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Johnson has quickly made a mark at the Bulldogs and aspires to be a senior coach down the track. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Footscray won the 2025 VFL Grand Final against Southport after finishing a game clear on top of the ladder at the end of the home and away season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                    Stewart Edge holds up the VFL premiership cup after Footscray&#8217;s win over Southport in 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n<p>Edge exits the Western Bulldogs after more than a decade in development and coaching Footscray.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After being involved in the 2014 and 2016 VFL premierships, Edge was appointed Footscray coach in 2021 and ended his time at the kennel with another flag in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Footscray assistant coach Anthony Barry has been promoted to Luke Beveridge\u2019s coaching panel as a development coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Barry played in the 2016 VFL premiership with Footscray after being signed in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Western Bulldogs signed Brisbane champion midfielder Luke Power as head of development in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Power coached Carlton in the VFL in 2025 and was also head of development at Princes Park across his four years at the Blues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reigning VFL premier will have a new coach next season Alex Johnson at the Western Bulldogs in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-243281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}