Toner back for Pies’ top job

By Paul Pickering
TO say that Chris Toner had the inside running on the senior coaching job at Narre Warren is an understatement.
The former Magpies player and reserves coach had a powerful ally in his bid to replace outgoing premiership coach Matt Shinners at Fox Road. He was the best man at Shinners’ wedding – and vice versa.
So when Shinners eventually decided the 2010 season would be his last at the helm, Toner, who was coaching at Cora Lynn in the Ellinbank and District Football League, couldn’t help but spy a homecoming.
That long-held ambition of leading his former club became a reality last week, when Pies president Kim McGill officially offered Toner the gig.
Not even a successful reign at Cora Lynn, which included three consecutive grand final appearances and a premiership in 2008, could convince Toner to stay.
“I always wanted to come back,” he said. “I’ve been away long enough now, so I’m really looking forward to it. I had a fair idea that Matt was finishing up at the end of the year, so I thought I’d better take (the senior job) now or I’ll probably never get another chance.”
Toner played over 10 years of footy at Narre Warren and actually applied for the senior job five years ago.
And, as McGill reflected this week, he would have been a worthy appointment if not for the interest of then Gippsland Power coach and former St Kilda star Aussie Jones.
“He was a little unfortunate,” McGill said of Toner’s timing.
“That was the year Aussie applied, and we had to go with him for a couple of years.”
Two premierships later, Jones’s departure left Shinners in the awkward position of inheriting a dominant side and the weight of expectation.
It’s not hard to see the parallels with the situation now facing Toner, who arrives in the wake of senior and reserves flags.
If Toner is feeling the pressure, it doesn’t show.
“When Matt took over from Aussie he’d only coached the under-18s, and he’s done a great job and left the club in good stead, so now it’s time for me to take the baton from Matt,” he said.
Toner believes his time away from the club will allow him to return without any “preconceived ideas” about the playing list.
He looks forward to working with an entirely new panel of coaches, with Scott Mather appointed to the reserves role, Jack McTaggart as under-18 coach and Paul Brown to mould the colts side.
Toner has signed for two years and will effectively assume a director of coaching role, providing guidance for the club’s developing coaches.