SHAUN Daly was always destined to become a coach.
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After starting his Ovens and Murray career as a teenager under Peter Tossol at Corowa-Rutherglen, Daly found himself playing under another legendary figure in Paul Spargo when he moved to Albury.
While he spent much of his time during the Roos’ golden era in the early 2000s with the Murray Bushrangers, Daly was a key player as Spargo led the Tigers to a hat-trick of premierships from 2009-11.
The Howlong export played in Albury’s losing 2012 grand final before heading to Queensland to join Jason Akermanis’ junior club – Mayne Tigers – as an assistant coach.
Daly took over the top job at Mayne in 2014 and joined Wangaratta Rovers and North Melbourne ruckman Mick Nolan as a Tigers premiership coach when he led the club to back-to-back flags.
The 31-year-old said his time in Queensland was the perfect apprenticeship before returning to the Albury Sportsground to work with co-coach Daniel Maher.
“It’s not an AFL culture up there so there’s a lot of guys who are pretty raw and it’s enjoyable to coach because you can teach them a lot,” he said.
“A lot of them don’t even know the basics of AFL.
“It was a good way to start my coaching career by moving up north.
“It was good to get away from the club as a player and then come back as a coach.
“As a coach, you want to be seen as a coach and respected, not just another player running around. You’ve got to have that separation from the guys as a coach, rather than when you’re a player so that transition was made a bit easier by moving away.
“It’s been great having Mahery there as a co-coach, he’s been a constant.”
Another constant at Albury is the influence of Spargo, who Daly said had been a valuable mentor in his first year coaching in the Ovens and Murray.
“I think anyone that’s been coached by ‘Spargs’ takes a bit of him on board because he was such a great coach,” he said.
“Even the previous coaches before me, you can see a bit of ‘Spargs’ in all of them and he’s certainly still a mentor around the club.”
“When I went away I always looked forward to the Yarra match. It’s always a bit of a grudge match but at the same time you do respect each other,” he said.
“They were always very hard games before I left and it looks like it’s going to be exactly the same this time.”