Men’s Senior Coach – Luke Giles
We are pleased to announce Luke Giles as returning Head Senior Coach for 2026. Luke, guided us to finals in 2025 and had previously coached West Preston Lakeside in Division 1 of the Northern Football League. “Gigs” has also worked at Northern Knights with young footballers and is great at building rapport with young footballers. Luke’s first year in the top job was a spectacular one where the side bested both Grand Finalists at some stage throughout the season. Luke will continue to be a great Senior Coach for the Club.
0430 496 009 | lukegiles22@gmail.com
Men’s Assistant Coaches
- George Cotsonis
- Anthony Pezzementi
- Jacob Smith
Women’s Senior Coach – Andrew Harwood
Andrew brings an outstanding playing and coaching background to the role, having been involved in the game for more than four decades as a player, coach and administrator.
A life member of the Heidelberg Football Club, Andrew had a distinguished playing career, where he was dual Best and Fairest, Captain and league representative player.
Andrew coached Heidelberg to a Reserves premiership in 2007, before a long involvement with Heidelberg Juniors as a Committee member and Junior Coach. It was here, as part of the Heidelberg Junior Football Club Committee, that Andrew drove the establishment of Junior Girls participation, as the inaugural Junior Girls Football Coordinator, leading the establishment of the club’s first ever girls football teams in 2017.
Andrew then moved into coaching at Youth girls’ level, before moving into Senior Women’s Football Coaching at Heidelberg Football Club, first as Assistant Coach (2021), then as Senior Women’s Coach (2022–2024). In his time as senior coach of Heidelberg, he led the team to the 2023 Division 2 Grand Final and the 2024 Division 1 Preliminary Final.
0417 384 419
Women’s Assistants
- Brad Cronin
- Nick Andrews
Men’s Reserves Coach –
Adam ‘Lefty’ Wright
Lefty has been with Old Carey for four (4) seasons now and in that time seen and experienced everything. He is unflappable, kind and very astute and now has nearly 15 years of experience in the coaching space. Most recently Lefty has been ‘leftenant’ to the Head Coach – taking on the difficult role of coordinating the midfield cohort. Lefty is hands down the right person to ensure our Reserves group thrive and go a step further in year 2. He is well loved by all at the club and we are excited to see what he can deliver with what should be quite a talented group in 2025.
Lefty’s coaching CV includes 3 seasons as an under 19s coach at the Ivanhoe Football Club, 4 seasons coaching the Reserves at Old Geelong and three years as a Senior Assistant and caretaker Coach at Brunswick Football Club.
0418 874 878 | leftylava@gmail.com
Ryan Dobson
Ryan is a highly experienced Level 2 Accredited AFL Coach, who had a lengthy playing career across a number of metropolitan playing leagues. In season 2017 Ryan turned his attention to coaching – starting out with a role at the Nunawading Football Club (Reserves Coach). After 3 years – Ryan progressed to Nunawading Senior Coaching Role and has put his everything into sustaining the 100-year-old foundational EFNL club.
From late 2021, in addition to overseeing the men’s program – he successfully worked with a small committee to establish a Nunawading women’s program from scratch.
He describes this step as a game-changer for that club and it’s future. Ryan believes his experiences at Nunawading assisted him greatly in building the Old Carey Women’s Program.
The Women’s program is now three years in and from Ryan leaves it having built a strong foundation. We know he will now pair with lefty to build a similar foundation with the men’s group.
0404 932 157 | newimagebricklaying@hotmail.com
Men’s Thirds Coach – Michael Mitchell
Michael is a former Carey student who played a small number of Old Carey games in the Unders and Thirds before he was talked into a Team Manager / Assistant role with the Unders program. Seeing how much he got from being part of a football program – his trajectory took him to Melbourne High School Old Boys where across 5 seasons he collected experience as an Under 19 and 2s coach.
Carey has always been home and when the chance arose to return return several years back, Michael jumped at it. He has coached our reserves and now continues his development position heading up the Thirds where he snared a thrilling premiership last season. In addition, Michael has been a fixture at the Old Carey Cricket Club across a decade as well.
Under 19s Coach – Jack Hamilton
In 2026 Jack Hamilton returns having replaced longtime under 19 coach Keith Pereira in heading up our Under 19 program in 2025. Jack is studying Exercise Science, has headed up a Colts Football Program previously and been a Senior Assistant Coach at EFNL and VFLW levels. Jack coaches the Blackburn Cricket Club and is passionate about developing a young and talented list of Carey School Leavers. High first year of Unders coaching saw unprecedented numbers training right through into the depths of winter and we were proud of his ability to steer the team into a finals campaign despite often giving up players to senior football.
0430 440 804 | jackhamilton0202@gmail.com
Head Trainer
- Joseph Yap
Physiotherapy
- Instinct Health
