{"id":338604,"date":"2025-12-10T03:57:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T03:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/338604\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T03:57:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T03:57:13","slug":"essendon-great-dyson-heppell-joins-collingwood-as-a-development-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/338604\/","title":{"rendered":"Essendon great Dyson Heppell joins Collingwood as a development coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

A month after handing first-round Essendon<\/a> draftees their jumpers, former club captain Dyson Heppell has jumped ship to arch rivals Collingwood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Magpies have announced he will be joining the club in 2026 as a development coach.<\/p>\n

Heppell retired at the end of the 2024 season after 253 games for the Bombers, including six seasons as captain.<\/p>\n

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\"Dyson<\/p>\n

Dyson Sharp presented his jumper by Essendon champion Dyson Heppell.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

He then worked with both Port Melbourne in the VFL and Leongatha in the Gippsland League in a coaching capacity, before joining the Pies.<\/p>\n

Heppell made the 2014 All-Australian team and won the Bombers’ best and fairest in the same year.<\/p>\n

He played in many Anzac Day battles against Collingwood over the years, but will now cross to the other side. <\/p>\n

Magpies general manager Charlie Gardiner said the club was excited to have such an experienced football person join the club. <\/p>\n

“Dyson 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,” Gardiner said.<\/p>\n

“Working predominantly with our upcoming talent, Dyson’s ability to form strong relationships and understand the needs of players will allow him to be influential and mentor our emerging talent.”<\/p>\n

The Pies also announced that Greg Stafford will be joining the club as a ruck coach from Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Stafford spent 11 seasons with the Demons, working closely with Max Gawn.<\/p>\n

He played 204 AFL games for Sydney and Richmond across his career. <\/p>\n

“Greg 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,” Gardiner said.<\/p>\n

Collingwood has had a few changes in the coaching ranks, following the departures of Josh Fraser, Andy Otten and Neville Jetta (to a new role in the club).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A month after handing first-round Essendon draftees their jumpers, former club captain Dyson Heppell has jumped ship to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-338604","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"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338604","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=338604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}