The Gold Coast SUNS has reworked its coaching structure for the 2023 AFL & VFL seasons.
Under Senior Coach Stuart Dew will be three AFL assistant coaches; Steven King, Brad Miller and Tate Kaesler.
Kaesler will move into a new role in 2023 as defensive assistant coach and will continue to be charged with coaching team defence.
King will continue in his role as Senior Assistant overseeing the midfield group, while Miller will also remain in the same role as Assistant Coach - Forwards.
Josh Drummond, who was the 2022 defenders assistant coach, will become the club’s new VFL Head Coach.
The SUNS VFL side was coached to its highest finish this year by Jackson Kornberg, who will now become a Development Coach with a focus on the VFL forwards.
Kornberg will also co-ordinate the SUNS Academy High Performance Program which was established by Rhyce Shaw and Jarrod Cotton in 2022.
Shaw and Cotton will continue in their current roles as Head of Development and Under 19 Academy Coach respectively.
James Frawley will also continue to help with the club’s VFL program.
GC SUNS General Manager of Football Performance Wayne Campbell said the changes to the football department would give its coaches more opportunity to develop with a continued focus on providing the best program possible for the players to succeed.
“We’ve made some changes to our coaching structure to ensure we continue to deliver a high-performance environment for our players while also giving our people opportunities to develop in different areas,” Campbell said.
“Josh has eight years of experience as an AFL assistant coach focussing on defenders and this will be a great opportunity for him to look after his own team and oversee a different area of the ground.
“Tate has vast coaching experience and after two years of overseeing our team defence, will be looking to build on the work done by Josh with our AFL backline players next season.
“Jackson had a successful first season with the SUNS which saw us play in our first VFL preliminary final and we are excited to see his coaching development continue as he broadens his responsibilities.
“Our structure now sees us with a development coach aligned to the AFL assistants in each area of the ground which we think will allow us to be more streamlined and position us well to contend in 2023.”
GC SUNS 2023 Coaching Panel:
Stuart Dew – AFL Senior Coach
Steven King – Senior Assistant & Midfield Coach
Brad Miller – Assistant Coach – Forwards
Tate Kaesler – Assistant Coach – Defenders
Rhyce Shaw – Head of Development
Josh Drummond – VFL Head Coach
Jackson Kornberg – Development Coach
Jarrod Cotton – Under 19 Academy Coach
