CASEY Demons coach Justin Plapp will coach the Victorian Football League state team against the West Australia Football League this year.
The VFL will host the WAFL at North Port Oval, Port Melbourne on Saturday, May 27.
Plapp, the former Tiger and Saint who represented his native Tasmania during his playing days, said he was honoured to be asked to coach the VFL.
“I got approached to see if I was interested in coaching the Vic team and I was a little bit surprised by it, but I certainly jumped at it,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“Not only was it a great opportunity to coach the league’s best players, I’m also really passionate about state footy.
“It was a pretty easy decision, but there was some uncomfortableness about it too, because these roles are often linked to coaches that have been around a fair while like Gary Ayres and Gerald FitzGerald, who have done the role.”
Plapp said coaching the VFL team wouldn’t hinder his commitments with Casey.
“Knowing that it’s going to be around the mid-season VFL break helps. There will be a little bit of preparation time, but it won’t conflict too much and that was the biggest thing that I wanted to clarify,” he said.
“I had conversations with people at Melbourne and Casey and we all came to the agreement that it wasn’t going to hinder anything, so they were all fully supportive.
Plapp said he hoped to add some value to the game and create a program for the players where they would come away with “a bit of a wow factor”.
“I want the players to walk away feeling satisfied that they know what state footy is all about,” he said.
“I want to set a program up where the players come in and they know that it’s something special. I think the excitement around state football has been missed and I still think there is an opportunity to pump it up.
“Players who don’t get to play AFL footy – this could be the highest level they play at, so I want to provide a program that caters for them.”
Plapp highlighted Melbourne rookie Tim Smith as one player who benefitted from playing state football last year.
“He invested in it and I think it helped his confidence. Out of it came a sense of belonging and he really believed he was good enough to make it at the next level. I honestly reckon it played a part in him getting to this level and where he is now at Melbourne,” he said.
“[Melbourne rookie] Declan Keilty was another who was in the squad and trained with the VFL team last year. He got a great amount of experience and although he didn’t play – the process of being in the squad also helped him.
“Players who are desperate to play AFL footy – I want to provide this opportunity for them.”
The players forming the VFL team will all be VFL-listed players – no AFL-listed players can represent the VFL, including rookies.
