WILLIAMSTOWN coach Peter German will this weekend record game 100 as a VFL coach.
WHEN Peter German answers the call he’s out running. It’s where he does his best thinking, the Williamstown coach retorts.
Has he time to take the call? Not a problem, and so the conversation rolls as German continues to pound the pavement or wherever his run takes him.
And, that’s somewhat like a coaching career that followed his AFL career, which spanned 11-years with North Melbourne and saw him play 185 games and kick 201 goals.
When it’s mentioned that this weekend’s Qualifying Final marks his 100th VFL match as coach, German, self-effacingly asks if he has stupidity emblazoned on his forehead.
He wonders out aloud why he pursues such a pursuit. And, continues to run, like a man on a mission.
At the moment that mission is to lead Williamstown to its first premiership since Brad Gotch and Troy West led the club to the 2003 flag.
Entwined with that mission is developing, nurturing and managing all those Western Bulldogs who finds themselves with its VFL affiliate.
Currently, German is in protracted discussions as to his future in 2014, the year that Williamstown and Western Bulldogs end its marriage and go their own separate ways.
If you were a punter you’d be taking short odds that German will be coaching … somewhere. It’s what he does best, he says.
And, that’s backed by an impressive résumé that has seen him coach Hawthorn reserves before the revamped VFL competition took place in 2000.
He was on the coaching staff at West Coast Eagles for two seasons; spent a season coaching Peel Thunder and another four seasons at Subiaco where he led the club to a premiership.
German was also the assistant coach to Chris Connolly at Fremantle and sandwiched in somewhere into that bulging CV is another three years coaching in Tasmania.
After starting his VFL coaching career at Casey Scorpions in 2009, a stint that saw him named as VFL coach of the year, German was wooed to Williamstown/Western Bulldogs and that’s where he’s been the past four seasons.
While he currently owns a winning strike rate of 67 percent and has taken the Seagulls to minor premiers and even a Grand Final, the ultimate prize has so far eluded him.
He notes just how proud a club is Williamstown and how he’d like nothing more than to deliver the club its 16th premiership (including two division two premierships) , which would match the mark of arch rival Port Melbourne as the most in the competition.
But, his current job entails more than winning flags. It’s about maximizing a player’s god-given talent.
German recalls how Will Minson was something of a fixture at Williamstown a couple of seasons ago and now such is his form that he’s been spoken about as an All Australian selection.
It’s the rejuvenation of a player like Minson take gives German great satisfaction, but he admits the knife’s edge on which a player’s career can balance precariously is the flip side.
After a 10-minute call comes to its inevitable conclusion, German is still running with no apparent end in sight.
Sounds like his coaching career. And, no huffing and puffing, either.
Last Modified on 29/08/2013 12:53