Alan John McConnell (born 30 March 1957) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Footscray in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) during the early 1980s and later coached

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

. McConnell is currently serving as director of coaching at the Greater Western Sydney Giants.

Playing career

Originally from Kolora in the Mount Noorat Football League, Alan played with

Terang Terang is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. The town is in the Shire of Corangamite and on the Princes Highway south west of the state's capital, Melbourne. At the , Terang had a population of 1,824. At the 2001 census, ...

in the

Hampden Football League The Hampden Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball league based in South-Western Victoria, with clubs located in towns along or near the Princes Highway from Camperdown to Portland. The league is a major country ...

, under age football with Fitzroy and

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFA) football with Preston,

Footscray

McConnell was a fierce defender at

Footscray Football Club The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...

in the VFL league and spent three seasons with the club from 1980 until 1982, playing a total of 37 games and kicked 5 goals.

Coaching career

Fitzroy Football Club caretaker senior coach (1995), (1996)

In 1995, he was appointed as the caretaker senior coach of

when

Bernie Quinlan Bernard Francis Quinlan (born 21 July 1951) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Footscray Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). One of a handful of players to have won a Brownl ...

was sacked during the season. He again became the caretaker senior coach of Fitzroy, in the following year in the 1996 season for the last eight games when senior coach Michael Nunan stood aside, but he failed to register a win in either season. McConnell then became the last official senior coach of Fitzroy Football Club. McConnell left Fitzroy after the 1996 season, when the

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the V ...

merged with

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/ ...

to become the newly formed

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

Football Club.

Geelong Football Club

McConnell then joined Geelong as an assistant coach.

Australian Institute of Sport

After leaving Geelong, he became the head AFL coach for the Australian Institute of Sport.

GWS Giants

McConnell later became the first appointment to the Greater Western Sydney Giants as an assistant coach working with the forward line in 2013, McConnell then later became the GWS Director of Coaching under GWS senior coach

Leon Cameron Leon Cameron (born 2 September 1972) is a former Australian rules footballer who is the former senior coach of the Greater Western Sydney Giants (GWS) in the Australian Football League (AFL). His AFL playing career lasted from 1990 to 2003 an ...

. McConnell was appointed the senior coach of the Giants' AFL Women's side in July 2017. Thus becoming the first person to coach both an AFL and AFLW side. In the round three, 2018 match against , McConnell registered his first win in his entire coaching career, having endured eleven losses from as many matches during his two stints as 's caretaker senior coach in 1995 and 1996. On 26 March 2022, it was announced that McConnell would step down from his role as senior coach of the Giants' AFL Women's side at the end of the 2022 season and move into another role within in the club. However on 12 April 2022, McConnell reversed this decision and stepped down early from his role as senior coach GWS AFL Women's side effective immediately and was replaced by Cameron Bernasconi.

References

* *Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing.

External links

1957 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Western Bulldogs players Preston Football Club (VFA) players Fitzroy Football Club coaches Greater Western Sydney Giants AFL Women's coaches {{AFL-bio-1950s-stub