by Ben Martin, Colac Herald
While most people would be sad to see their trip around Australia coming to an end, Shane Boyington says the prospect of getting stuck into his new role as Otway Districts’ new coach has him excited to get home.
The club announced the former Demon, pictured left, will return to the club next year to take on its senior coaching role, having previously had a three-year stint with the Demons before COVID.
Boyington, his wife Sam and their three children Caitlin, 10, Archie 7, and Ollie, 5, are currently on the Gold Coast in the middle of a seven-month trip around Australia.
The family won’t return to Victoria until October, but Boyington has already gotten the ball rolling with his new coaching duties.
“The club reached out about 10 weeks ago to see if I was interested in a chat and obviously the answer was yes, and it eventuated from there,” Boyington said this week.
“The ball’s already rolling, I’ve been on the phone the last couple of days.
“Just to introduce myself or reintroduce myself to some, and once I’m back I’m looking forward to having a few face-to-face catch-ups.”
Boyington, a Geelong-based firefighter, grew up on the Mornington Peninsula and played the majority of his football career with his junior club Sorrento.
A move to Ballarat for university led to him joining Lexton Plains league club Rokewood Corindhap where he met future Demons coach Tom Mullane-Grant.
Boyington then returned to the Mornington Peninsula where he had stints at Sorrento, Langwarrin and Rosebud, then Skye in the Southern Football Netball League before landing in Geelong, where Mullane- Grant lured him to the Demons in 2017.
Boyington started his coaching career during his first stint at the Demons, as an assistant coach to Mullane-Grant in 2018 and then to Zach Hickleton the following year.
Post-COVID he joined colleague Troy Mitchell at Bellarine league club Barwon Heads where he coached the Seagulls’ reserves and was part of the senior coaching panel, working alongside senior coaches Mitch Herbison, Sam Schaller and premiership coach Dan Donati.
Boyington led the Seagulls’ reserves to a grand final last year.
He said he was grateful that the Demons had given him an opportunity to pursue his coaching aspirations.
“The main goal was to end up coaching a senior team, so it was just a matter of getting that experience under the belt first,” he said.
“But I’m so excited to be coaching Otway; I’ve played at the club and it’s the people there, there’s a great culture that made the job appealing.
“I’d love to be able to keep the list together and build on that, and hopefully bring some success that the people of the club deserve.”
Boyington, 38, said it remained up in the air whether he would coach from the sidelines or not.
He’s taken this year off football but played a handful of games with Barwon Heads’ reserves last year.
“I’m going to give myself every opportunity to play but I’m not going to take the spot on an under-18 kid who’s earnt it,” Boyington said.
“I figured if I’m there, I may as well train, but the key focus for me is to coach and develop the players,” he said.
Boyington said his family was relishing the opportunity to travel around Australia.
He said the coaching role had given him another reason to be excited when the family returns in October.
“We left Geelong in March and headed west, hugged the coast most of the way around,” Boyington said.
“By the time we get back at the start of October we’ll have done a full lap of Australia,” he said.
“We’re currently on the Gold Coast.”
Boyington said there had been no shortage of highlights so far.
“We loved the WA coast, the Ningaloo reef, we were snorkelling right across from our campsite,” he said.
“I also really like Litchfield National Park (in the Northern Territory), the walks and waterfalls were sensational.
“As much as I’m keen for our trip to keep going, I’m pretty excited to get back and starting building on what the Otway boys have been doing.”
Boyington’s appointment has received praise from many after the news broke on the Herald’s social media pages, with one commenter saying the Demons were “lucky to have him”, while former coach Hickleton labelled it a “fantastic appointment”.
“This bloke has to be one of the best blokes you’ll ever meet,” he said.
“The boys love him and will play for him and players will want to come to Otway to play for him.”
Boyington, who replaced interim co-coaches Jackson Paatsch and Stewart Sutherland, said he was feeling very grateful.
“The support around has been really nice, and I want to thank everyone for that,” he said.
“I also want to thank Stew and Paatschy for their outstanding effort getting the group together and playing some good footy over the past six weeks.”
