By: Daniel Kelly (@Ukurrie)
Brodie ‘Dutchy’ Holland, now 3 months into his role as Northern Bullants senior coach, knows that patience is required with his exciting but young list.
To ensure that potential is fulfilled, Holland believes that he needs a culture that befits the 141-year-old football club in the heart of the northern suburbs community.
“Whether we win, lose, or draw, we want to make sure we’re enjoying the experience and for it to be a strong learning environment,” he said. “It’s possible to have both a happy environment around the club and also be serious during training and games.”
“If you’re going to do something hard, you want to enjoy the experience and, when you do that, you get more out of yourself and the people around you.”
Holland has carefully built his coaching support staff to be able to not just make the young Ants better footballers, but better people too.
“All of the coaches are very respectful people, which is in line with who I am as a coach,” he said. “They’re great football minds but they are passionate about player welfare too.”
To usher in the new era, Holland has brought in football experience and character he knows and trusts as well as the fresh ideas that new people bring.
Kris Pendlebury joins to coach the backline after a 10 year, 94 game VFL career, mostly as a defender with Bendigo, Collingwood, and Werribee.
After his VFL career, Kris went on to become a legend at the Balwyn Football Club (in the Eastern Football Netball League) winning premierships in 2015 and 2016, and winning numerous individual accolades along the way.
Pendlebury also had assistant coaching duties at Balwyn alongside Rodney ‘Rocket’ Eade.
Steve Glenn will guide the midfield group in 2023. Glenn ‘lives and breathes football’ according to Holland and has VFL playing experience with Williamstown.
Glenn earned his coaching stripes with assistant roles at Caroline Springs in the Western Region Football League (WRFL) and the Calder Cannons (NAB League). Most recently he coached the Airport West (Essendon District Football League) reserves to a premiership in 2022 whilst also acting as a senior assistant to the senior team.
Michael Shmerling will lead the forward group in 2023 after honing his coaching craft with Beaumaris Football Club (under Guy McKenna), Albert Park Football Club, and as a line coach for Box Hill’s development squad before becoming senior coach at Kew Football Club in the VAFA for 2018.
He’s also supported St Kilda Football Club as a development coach and been an assistant coach for Vic Metro interleague competitions.
Chris Muratore joins as the Head of Player Development and will work closely with the younger players on the development squad to hone their game.
Muratore has a strong coaching history – in both cricket and football – and will continue his senior coach role at Parkside Football Club in the Western Regional Football League (WRFL) on Saturday’s.
He will join the Bullants on Sunday’s – primarily as Holland’s man on the boundary line relaying instructions to the bench and runners.
On field leadership, after the departure of captain and five-time Laurie Hill Trophy winner (club best and fairest) Tom Wilson, will also have a different look in 2023.
Matthew King, Liam Mackie, Jean-Luc Velissaris, Jackson Barling, Ben Hurley, and Matthew Gundry are anchoring new and experienced Bullants to the principles of the club on the pre-season training track.
Holland knows he is in a rebuild and is already seeing signs of what the Bullants could be as a team and as a football club.
“We’re off to a pretty good start from that perspective,” he said.
With the season starting in March, don’t miss out on supporting Holland and his team by buying a membership for your club in our community today.