Inaugural AFLW coach joins Fields

Originally published by Caulfield Grammarians FC

The Caulfield Grammarians Football Club committee is delighted to announce that we have appointed Damien Keeping as our senior women’s coach for the 2022 season. We are also thrilled to announce our 2 senior assistant coaches as Deb Konopnicki and John Nankervis.

Damien has a storied history in women’s football as the inaugural coach of the Carlton Football Club in AFLW and then as the head coach of the Casey Scorpions in VFLW. Prior to his involvement in women’s football, Damien spent a number of years in coaching roles with the Calder Cannons. A relationship driven coach, who has a strong background in empowering his teams, Damien comes to our club with glowing references from some of our VFLW-aligned players.

Deb was appointed our reserves coach in 2021, after a career as player and coach at South Melbourne Districts. Her development of our reserves team this season was impressive, and we are looking forward to what she can do with our senior squad in 2022.

John is a former senior player at the Fields, who started his coaching career with the inaugural Prahran Assumption women’s team in 2018. John returned to the Fields in 2021 in an assistant coaching role and we are excited that we have been able to re-secure his expertise for 2022.

Club President Will Bowes said, “We have a lot of faith and belief in our playing group and we wanted to put together the best coaching group possible to help them maximise their potential. We welcome Damian to the Fields. With Damien, Deb & John we believe we have done that and as a club we are excited to see what our girls can achieve in 2022”.