Tara Murray
Western Jets coach Robbie Chancellor is headed back to the AFL after being appointed Greater Western Sydney’s head of development.
The Giants announced that Chancellor would be a key part of new coach Adam Kingsley’s team going forward.
The two worked together previously at St Kilda, where Chancellor was opposition analyst and manager of performance analysis before transitioning to coaching and becoming an assistant coach at the Saints, in charge of stoppages and team structure.
Chancellor also previously spent time at Hawthorn and Melbourne.
He said when he was appointed to the role at the Jets, he knew his time in the AFL at that stage was coming to an end at that point due to changes to the soft cap caused by COVID-19. Chancellor proactively sort a head coaching role which he said had been a tick against him when he was coaching for other roles.
Chancellor has coached the Jets the last two years, his first senior coaching role.
The highlight during that time was premiership by the girls side early this year, the club’s first ever premiership.
Star Montana Ham was taken at pick one in the AFLW, while Laura Elliott and Charlotte Baskaran were also taken in the draft. Caitlin Sargent was picked by Essendon ahead of the draft.
The boys side had the finals this year, before being knocked out in the elimination final by the Dandenong Stingrays. Co-captain Massimo D’ambrosio was picked up by the Bombers in the mid-season draft.
As well as coaching the Jets, Chancellor led the football program at Maribyrnong Sports College as part of the role.
Giants football general manager Jason McCartney said they were thrilled to welcome Chancellor to the Giants.
He will work alongside VFL-development coach Damian Truslove and development coach and Giants women’s captain Alicia Eva.
“He has a long-standing relationship with new coach Adam Kingsley and will be a valuable asset to our football program.
“Across recent months we identified a need to bolster our development program and we’re excited to have someone of the calibre of Robbie to add to this space, alongside our current development coaches.”
As part of the coaching restructure, the Giants farewell assistant coaches Steve Johnson and Amon Buchanan.
