Mark Adamson has recharged his batteries and is ready to tackle yet another senior coaching role — this time with the club where two of his sons are playing, Stanhope Football Club.
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Adamson spent 15 years travelling from Bendigo to Balranald and Kyneton to Kyabram, successful at a number of clubs prior to taking a three-year break.
This year he played two senior games with his sons, 23-year-old hard-nosed mid-fielder Jye and goalsneak Rhys Smith, 25, his step-son.
Jye was Stanhope’s best player in its preliminary final loss and kicked 17 goals in 16 matches, while Smith bagged 35 goals as an opportunist forward.
Adamson coached Kyabram from 2004-06, but since then has travelled extensively from his Bendigo base in coaching roles before deciding to spend three years on the sidelines (including a COVID-19-affected season) from 2018-20.
“I had a nice break, but looking back, I was probably burned out after 15 years straight,” Adamson said.
“I came on board as an assistant coach at Stanhope to Grints (Dennis Grinton) and Patto (Mark Patten), which suited me back then.”
Adamson, now 47 and well known to Kyabram football fans as a former coach and grand final player, was last week appointed to the top job at Stanhope, which was a Kyabram district league preliminary finalist this season.
He will take the reins as coach of Stanhope after spending time both coaching and playing at Stanhope in the past two seasons.
“It is a pretty natural progression, the opportunity to take up a lesser role a couple of years ago was good,” Adamson said.
“It was great to work with those two blokes (Grinton and Patten). I got to play a bit of football across a couple of years and I feel like I have built a rapport with the players.
“Now I am ready to get back into it from a coaching perspective. I am highly motivated at the moment.”
First port of call for the experienced Adamson was to secure the services of key playmakers Ryan and Luke Semmel.
“They are both pretty keen to stay on. That is the effect Stanhope has on people,” he said.
“It is just a very good club.’’
Adamson said a focus of his during the off season, which would start with pre-season on Monday, November 14, would be increasing the team’s outside speed.
“It is one of the things we lacked across the finals series and an area that I am focused on,” he said.
Adamson was a former Northern Knights under-age player, before playing with Collingwood reserves and then Montmorency in the Diamond Valley League (now the Northern Football League).
His penchant for travel started before the turn of the century, having played in a premiership at Southport Sharks in 1999
Adamson, who is based at Bendigo as a senior facilities and corporate support role with Services Australia, has lived in Bendigo since 2007.
He coached Golden Square to a premiership in 2009, kicking 37 goals in half a season after returning from a second knee reconstruction mid-way through the season.
He was assistant coach at the club before taking Golden Square to back-to-back grand finals, losing the first before winning in 2009.
In 2010, he returned at the request of then coach Dave Williams and kicked 31 goals in 20 games with Kyabram, which lost the grand final.
“I was keen to keep playing and still had a connection to the club,” he said.
Adamson was captain coach for three seasons, the team’s best result being seventh.
His time at the club was again hampered by injury, missing the first seven games of 2004, before kicking 49 in the second half of the year.
While in an assistant coach role at the Bendigo Pioneers he made cameo appearances at Hopetoun, Campbells Creek and even Berrigan, where Jye started his senior football as a 16-year-old.
He guided Kyneton out of recess, taking it into the finals in the second year, then had a similar impact on Balranald.
“They had just about bottomed out and have kicked on since then,” he said.
Jye and Rhys will both have important roles with the Lions this season. Adamson is excited about guiding his sons into the new season.
“I got a chance to play a couple of games with both of them this year, which was great,” he said.
Adamson played two senior games and kicked three goals in 2021 at Stanhope, appearing with the reserves team on six occasions.
This year he played nine games and kicked 10 goals in the reserve grade team, twice appearing with the senior team and kicking three goals in a big win against Longwood late in the season.
He played 16 senior games and kicked 17 goals, including 13 goals in a four-week stretch which was highlighted by a bag of six against Longwood.
Adamson junior spent six seasons at junior level with Berrigan in the Picola league.
As a 16-year-old, in 2016, he played nine games with Picola league team, having dominated the under-17 competition in the previous two years.
Rhys Smith played senior football with Loddon Valley league club Serpentine before arriving at Stanhope, but played under Adamson at Kyneton and Golden Square — the latter as a junior.
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