UNSW-ES Developing the Bulldogs of the Future
Written by David Redden (AFL Sydney – Features Writer)
AFL Sydney recently sat down with the President of the UNSW-ES Bulldogs, Stephen Dunkley, and the newly appointed Head Coach of the UNSW-ES Men’s Premier League team, Darren Pfeiffer.
With the preceding two seasons shortened or cancelled, UNSW-ES Bulldogs as with all clubs across the league have faced challenges. However, as we enter the 2022 season the Bulldogs have plenty to be encouraged and excited about.
UNSW-ES President, Stephen Dunkley, confirmed “it’s been a challenge. I sat down in early December, lamenting that we had taken so long to make some appointments in terms of coaching,” Stephen said. “The numbers at training in preseason were low across all grades and also when we came back in January. All clubs, not just ours, have been struggling from the pandemic years but hopefully we will all get back to normal in 2022.”
But here we are one month from Round One, and UNSW-ES and AFL Sydney will be back playing the game we love.
Stephen outlined “as a club I would say we are a little bit behind the 8-ball at this stage, but Premierships aren’t won in February and March.”
With the appointment of Darren Pfeiffer as the new head Coach of the UNSW-ES Premier Division Men’s team the Bulldogs are in great hands.
“Darren and I go back about four years now,” Stephen said. “I originally recruited Darren to the football club in the 2018 season to work alongside Stephen Pollock, so Darren and I have a really good history together, and he knows this football club”
Darren certainly knows coaching, having obtained his Level three coaching accreditation, putting him in elite coaching company in NSW/ACT. Stephen also says he “is an all-round good guy. He is especially good with younger kids in terms of tutelage, and he has enjoyed a stellar career in AFL, SANFL and in country Footy. It’s a pleasure to welcome him back, there’s some exciting things on the horizon for Darren and our football club.”
Strong pathways, strong results
While elite level coaching is a mainstay at UNSW-ES, with Darren taking over from Dean Towers, what most stands out to Stephen is the club relationships with their junior pathway clubs. “A lot of credit must go to our junior pathway clubs, the Maroubra Saints and Easts Junior clubs, who we have been working with together for a long time. Our relationships with Easts and Maroubra are highly valued, the senior club works on these relationships on a day to day and weekly basis, there’s always Senior Men’s and Women’s players involved at all levels, from Auskick to particularly the Under 17 boys as they transition to Senior club at Under 19s level. In more recent times, we have made a concerted effort with our Youth Girls to appoint serious people and proper coaches so that the girls can make the transition smoothly.”
However, the essence of a great club is that it is not measure solely by success at the highest grades, Stephen was buoyed by the development of the lower grade teams, including the nomination of an additional men’s team and second Under 19’s team in season 2020.
“In terms of our lower Grades, these teams have been run by Josh Tighe, Tim O’Donnell and Michael O’Donnell for the last four to five years,” Stephen said. “Those three club stalwarts have had a carte blanche charter under the club’s management to grow and facilitate the men’s lower grades program. We have been extremely successful. We have had a top-down policy for years, and players play where they are picked. The biggest change is, if you don’t train at UNSW-ES, you don’t play, you don’t get picked.”
UNSW-ES have had more than 100 players regularly at David Phillips Field South training in preparation for season 2022 each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. While accessing training facilities is always a challenge in East Sydney, the Bulldogs players are always on the track and are geared up for an outstanding season ahead. “Our club culture drives people to want to play with us, and we run a fantastic development program in our Under 19s that permeates through all grades.:
New appointments
In great news for the Bulldogs, Tom Williamson and Cameron McKinlay have been appointed as women’s coaches in season 2022. Stephen noted: “Our women’s program over the past three or four years has been in a transitioning period. The club had enormous success previously when it was guided by Tracey Kick under the UNSW Stingrays brand. In 2019, we merged the club under the Bulldogs brand, that’s been a successful merger, albeit that it took over a year to facilitate.”
In recent seasons, and certainly under the guidance of Tom and Cam the women’s program will focus on youth and skill development. “The appointment of Tom and Cam into the role, leading onto the Swans entry into AFLW, is all about giving the girls the opportunity to be coached by premiership coaches, and premiership players. Tom and Cam are very much up to date with the latest training techniques, health and wellbeing, everything that we have done over the past five years in the men’s program has been duplicated into the women’s program.”
In addition to Tom and Cam, Mike Hendrie, who runs the women’s program at the Bulldogs, and Bronwyn Gulden (who is heavily involved with the club and the Swans Academy) along with Stephen himself have been receiving a myriad of phone call from girls that want to come into our program from everywhere.” The Bulldogs are confident 2022 will be the start of something special in their women’s program.
Support from UNSW
A point of enthusiasm for the Bulldogs is the inception of the UNSW AFL Academy in 2022, in partnership with the University of NSW. The club is very excited about the new Academy program, as Stephen confirmed: “This has been on my agenda for the last two years, to create an aligned academic and sport development program, specifically targeting not only our players but athletes from other sports around the country. It really came together quite quickly, with Darren’s experience in health and development, to the extent that we are launching the program in the next couple of weeks. It is heavily supported and funded by the University, they certainly have a likeminded view as to how academia and sport aligns.
We think that this a great opportunity from a recruitment perspective, particularly from outside of Sydney, we think that players from NSW and Victoria may take advantage of accommodation opportunities that may become available in the otherwise-expensive Sydney. Having someone like Darren leading this program is exciting going forward.”
AFL Sydney wish the University and the Bulldogs, all the best with their endeavors to develop the Academy.
Success off the track
While so much of the action occur on field, UNSW-ES is very proud of it support network off-field, including many valued sponsors, and wonderful volunteers we have at our club. Stephen went into detail explaining these relationships:
“The University is very keen to continue our excellent relationship, we are about to go down the track of full access to strength and conditioning and physiotherapy programs, with gym passes, and access to Waratahs complex at David Phillips Field South.
“One of key positions in our club is Head of Sponsorships. Over the past two years Neil Hoar has performed this role. Neil owns Frontier Media in Sydney, and his son Charlie plays in our Senior team.
“Neil has been able to procure a multitude of sponsors. Neil was lucky enough to procure Mater Cars for Cancer as the lead principal sponsor for two years, a substantial sponsorship. They are ably supported by Dean Langenbach’s company ASG, a complete digital transformation business for companies looking for change. We have also had companies with us for the past five years, companies like Phillips Panzer Donnelly Real Estate. Alex Phillips has been fantastic in providing a free auction, which we sell at the AFL Luncheon. We haven’t had our luncheon for the past two years, but Alex’s support has been fantastic for our club.
“We have myriad smaller sponsors like, Marvan Group Hoteliers, ISC and Purple Cow Industries. Neil and his team do a wonderful job.
“We have sponsors coming on board for our Academy Program, to be announced in coming weeks. We are very keen to run our AFL Luncheon this year.”
Bulldogs building and supporting elite talent
Finally, Stephen was very proud to advise us that the club has “many players seeking opportunities in the SANFL and VFL, especially with the Swans and Giants VFL teams. These players will always be Bulldogs players, and we look forward to following their progress along their football journey.”
As mentioned, Darren Pfeiffer, a three-time premiership player with the Bulldogs, has returned to Henson Park as the Head Coach of the Premier Division Men’s team. A coup of a signing, the Bulldogs are excited to welcome Darren back to the kennel and cannot wait to see the impact he will have on the playing group.
Darren explained: “I spent three years playing here, creating some great memories winning three Premierships. I was always keen to get back to footy in Sydney, as I feel there is enormous opportunity and untapped potential in Australian rules here.
“I want to be part of developing the game here. Our footy club is heading in the right direction, the University is actively supporting us, and we are getting the old Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs back into the Club, as regards our long history.
“I really want to be part of UNSW-ES footy club over the next few years.”
A promising 2022 ahead
Darren gave us some insight into how the team is shaping up ahead of an exciting season 2022. “I feel we are shaping up quite well. Although many players have sought higher opportunities interstate, we have retained a strong core group of senior players including Brandon Jack, Mitch Conn & Dean Towers, all of which will continue to support player development along with our Head of Men’s Football, Shane Snibson who is entering his 4th year at the club. Tom Baxter, who had a bit of a role in the midfield last year, has been training well and is ready to take the next step.
“Also, Fred Tricks, a local Junior who has been here a few years now, he has been training extremely well and will get some early opportunities in the midfield. Veteran full-forward Kieran Emery told me the other day that this is the fittest he’s been.
“In terms of new recruits, the club is excited to sign Brodie Romensky from Maribyrnong Park in EDFL. Brody has moved to Sydney and will be part of GWS VFL List and will be a competition standout. We also have Patty Horan, who has come across from Belconnen AFC in the ACT. He has only been training with us for a few weeks now, but he looks lean, athletic, and fit, which is always a positive.
“We also have Mark Langman from Athelstone AFC in Adelaide, who came through the SANFL pathways. Finally, we have Andre Cupido, who has returned to the Club after a 9-year hiatus, and is very keen, looking like he hasn’t missed a beat in that time.”
Darren, like Stephen Dunkley, is very pleased with the relationship that UNSW-ES has with its junior pathway clubs: “We are very lucky to have such a good junior pathway with East Sydney Bulldogs and Maroubra Saints.
Jake Brown and Steven Chichester are our Under 19s Coaches, we are very lucky to have these two men looking after our younger players.” 2020 produced 6 debutants from our undefeated Under 19’s into premier division footy and those boys are all looking to cement permanent places in the senior teams.
UNSW-ES has some exciting young talent ready to burst onto the Premier Division scene, as Darren explains: “We have Hamish Dunstan and Ethan Eshuys who have come up from the Under 19s, they have come through the Swans Academy. I really like the way they have gone about it and they may get opportunities.
“We have also got Indie Kirk, who asked me in the pre-season what he had to do to play AFL Sydney Premier Division footy; he seems to be very determined to play Premier Division footy this year. He is very fit and very enthusiastic, which I like.”
Darren Pfeiffer one of the new UNSW AFL Academy’s driving forces. “This is a big one, something I was really keen to get back to the club and begin. The Academy has three main objectives/pillars:
- Football & Athletic Development – we want to bring kids in, from Under 13s to Under 16s, who have missed out on the Swans Academy, for whatever reason, and provide them with strong football development. We would like to have some of these players get back into state league squads in the future and develop into State League Footballers.
Kids are sitting for long periods of time and generally more inactive than in the past, which hinders their athletic development. We see the Academy as a way of mitigating this.
- Education and Career Support – we have people at UNSW who can provide our Academy members with career pathways and support, assisting with things like time management and anything that can progress their careers.
- Wellbeing – we have a dedicated wellbeing and personal development coach to work with the kids in producing individual development plans and to create a more holistic approach to our program.
The UNSW AFL Academy will commence in April and those interest can contact Darren directly via darren@basedperformance.com.au.
Or for more information on the UNSW AFL Academy, including how to sign up – Click Here
Darren went into detail to explain the objectives for the UNSW-ES men’s program in 2022:
“We have had a pretty good last four years and we have an expectation of success on-field. We really want to build our off-field success. We don’t hide from the fact that we want on-field results, building on our development in recent times.
“I will be driving this into our new and returning players, to create the hunger for great results. Our pathways are very important, if our young players are keen and work very hard, they will be given opportunities as well.
“AFL Sydney is important for Academy players because it helps their development playing against men. The Academy kids have told me they love playing against the men, as they feel it helps them when they go back to playing as part of Academy Squads.”
AFL Sydney would like to thank Stephen and Darren for their invaluable time and wish the Bulldogs all the best for season 2022 and beyond.
