General News
9 November, 2022
Tigers appoint leaders
TALENTED footballer Isaac Templeton has been appointed senior coach of Woorndoo Mortlake for season 2023.
TALENTED footballer Isaac Templeton has been appointed senior coach of Woorndoo Mortlake for season 2023.
Templeton, a two-time Maskell Medal winner and six-time Hampden interleague player, will take up the top job with the Tigers assisted by Damian Pemberton.
Templeton comes to the leadership role with a long list of credentials including captaining Koroit to four premiership flags, two seasons as assistant coach at Nirranda and three best and fairest awards (and three runner-up awards) at Koroit.
He has played representative football for Hampden (six seasons) and Vic Country and said he was looking forward to an exciting 2023 season with the Tigers.
“I’m really pumped about next year and looking forward to the challenge and to getting all the boys together, seniors and reserves, and encouraging them all to have as much input as possible,” Templeton said.
“As far as goals for the year, I’m hoping we can put ourselves in the best position possible to be as good as we can be.
“As a club we need to also build on our reserves, not just the senior side; we have one big squad and all are treated equal it’s just that one game is played at 12 and the other at 2pm.”
Templeton believes that in order to be competitive and to go deep into finals, the club needs for the top 10 reserve players to be able to “easily step up to the seniors.”
A new initiative for season 2023, Templeton has introduced an extended leadership group which includes two players from Camperdown, two from Warrnambool, two from the Woorndoo/Mortlake area and two from Geelong.
These players, he said, would be responsible for holding and encouraging additional training sessions for those from each area.
“Our full squad will train together once a week at Woorndoo and then those within the leadership group will run an additional session each week within their respective areas,” Templeton said.
The leadership group includes Matthew Pemberton and Jesse Horan (Camperdown), Will Templeton and Tim Akerley (Warrnambool), Sam Gervasoni and Keilan Webster-Bamford (Mortlake/Woorndoo) and Will Paulin and James Coghlan-West (Geelong).
“The onus will be back on the players to take some responsibility; I’m all about creating a solid foundation and given we have retained the majority of our playing group from last season, I’m confident in our commitment and our ability,” Templeton said.
“Along with the announcement of our leadership group, we have also appointed Tyson Hogan as captain.”
Assistant coach Damian Pemberton is no newcomer to the Tigers, having spent the past five seasons at Tigerland, including four as head coach.
Pemberton stepped back from the role last year to focus on work and family commitments and is now looking forward to chasing that elusive premiership medal with the Tigers in 2023.
Like Templeton, Pemberton also brings a wealth of experience and knowledge.
He spent his early football years at his local club, Lismore Derrinallum (just around the corner from his family home in Derrinallum) and after many years with the Demons, enjoyed his first coaching role as joint senior coach.
Although relatively young at that time, the experience and knowledge gained put him in good stead for future leadership roles.
After a year away – playing for the Western Football Netball Club – Pemberton returned locally to play with Camperdown for five years before heading to the Tigers to take up a coaching role.
The Tigers will begin pre-season training early to mid-December.
“We hope to get a few solid sessions in before the Christmas break and for the leadership group to take a second within their areas,” Templeton said.