Rivers appointed senior coach of Collegians

Collegians FC has appointed their next senior coach, with former Melbourne and Geelong defender Jared Rivers taking the reins.

Rivers, who retired from the AFL in 2015 after playing 194 games, has spent the past five years coaching at both Collingwood (Development and VFL coach) and North Melbourne (backline coach).

He brings a wealth of elite level experience to a talented Lions team that has played finals for the past three seasons – including two grand final appearances in 2017 and 2018.

Rivers replaces Shane Joyce after he stood down last month after four years in the role.

Read the club’s full statement below:

“Collegians Football Club is very excited to announce that Jared Rivers has agreed to coach the club going forward.

Jared has accepted the role offered to him after an exhaustive and very thorough process. The standard of candidates was extremely high and to have someone of Jared’s calibre join Collegians just shows how much our club and the VAFA in general is thought of.

All applications received were of the highest calibre and all had AFL experience. And the fact that Jared has come on top speaks volumes for the coach we have been able to secure.

I would like to thank all members of the coaching subcommittee who have been part of this process and thank them for their professionalism and their time.

We would also like to thank all the applicants who applied for the position and thank them for applications and for going through the process.

Jared played 194 AFL games, 150 for Melbourne and 44 for Geelong. After finishing playing in 2015 he was appointed as a development coach at Collingwood in 2016 and then was appointed as there VFL coach for seasons 2017 to 2019.

This year Jarred had been the backline coach for North Melbourne’s AFL team but with the COVID reductions in staff was a casualty of their cutbacks.

We strongly believe Jared will fit into the Collegians culture and will be an excellent coach of our club for quite some time.

We welcome Jared his wife Sophie and children Chloe and Charlotte to Collegians Football Club.”