After 12 months away from the game, highly regarded coach Steve O’Brien will begin a new era at Hampton Park, signing on as the director of coaching.
O’Brien has more than five years of VFL experience and a brilliant local CV which included stints at Rowville, Devon Meadows, St Kilda City and Highett.
Most recently he coached at Cranbourne for seven years, guiding the Eagles to premiership glory in 2022.
The new director of coaching said he was happy to sign on at the Redbacks and couldn’t wait to get stuck into working alongside senior playing coach Luke Bull.
“It’s a new challenge for me in my footy journey, I’m looking forward to getting back involved in footy again,” O’Brien said.
“What excites me is working with and developing young coaches, that is where I see my football now at this stage of my career.
“With a lot of years of experience, hopefully I can pass that on to them and help them be the best coaches they can be.”
O’Brien actually coached a young Bull at Casey VFL and said that is one of the connections which helped him land at Robert Booth Reserve.
With many clubs chasing his services and offering him coaching roles since his departure from Cranbourne in 2024, there were plenty of things for O’Brien to think about.
These included whether he wanted to get back involved in footy at all, and if so, in what capacity.
“We caught up, discussed a few things, and I suppose for me it was about deciding whether I wanted to get back into football,” he said.
“I realised I didn’t have the drive (to coach) anymore, I’ve probably burned that candle, but I still wanted to be involved in footy.
“The role that the club offered was exactly what I was after, and it all panned out from there. We think it should be a good combination, alongside all of the assistant coaches.”
O’Brien hoped to help Hampton Park continue its upwards trajectory as the club ventures into Southern Division 1.
“The club is in a really good spot and that is because they have done a heap of work both on and off-field, it wasn’t that long ago that they were down in Div 3,” he said.
“One of the things that we all agreed upon was we don’t want to go to Div 1 and make up the numbers, we want to have a real impact.
“We think that with some natural improvement and a couple of recruits, we can go up there and be competitive from day dot.”
