\n News\n <\/p>\n
\n Former Essendon Captain Dyson Heppell and experienced coach and former player Greg Stafford have joined Collingwood.\n <\/p>\n
Former Essendon Captain Dyson Heppell has joined Collingwood as a Development Coach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Heppell brings a wealth of leadership and football experience to the Pies, having played 253 games across 14 seasons for the Bombers, including six as Captain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
After retiring from AFL football at the end of the 2024 season, Heppell spent this past year playing for Port Melbourne\u2019s VFL side and Leongatha in the Gippsland League.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
With an illustrious playing career, which includes an All-Australian selection in 2014, AFL Rising Star Award and a Crichton Medal for Essendon\u2019s best and fairest player, Heppell now turns his focus to coaching and developing Collingwood\u2019s up-and-coming talent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Heppell will commence his role when training resumes in January.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In other news, the Club has also welcomed Greg Stafford to its coaching team as a ruck coach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stafford has previously worked at Melbourne Football Club for 11 seasons, including in 2021 when the Demons claimed the Premiership, overseeing the development of up-and-coming rucks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stafford\u2019s football experience expands further than coaching, having played 204 AFL matches with Sydney and Richmond.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
EGM of Football Charlie Gardiner said the Club was thrilled to acquire the pair who are so universally respected throughout the league.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDyson is a fantastic addition to our coaching team and football department. His experiences as a player, including his knowledge around leadership, will be a valuable asset to our playing group,\u201d Gardiner said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking predominantly with our upcoming talent, Dyson\u2019s ability to form strong relationships and understand the needs of players will allow him to be influential and mentor our emerging talent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGreg has over 20 years of football experience and has a track record of developing talented players. He will play a pivotal role in developing our current and future rucks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited to welcome such a high-calibre people to Collingwood and we look forward to seeing the impact Dyson and Greg can have throughout our Club.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News Former Essendon Captain Dyson Heppell and experienced coach and former player Greg Stafford have joined Collingwood. Former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-336495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336495","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=336495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}