Mick Giacomi appointed as Men’s Reserves coach for Season 2022

Essendon Royals legend Mick Giacomi has been appointed Men’s Reserves coach Season 2022.

The former junior, senior player, senior men’s coach has transitioned from his role as senior women’s co-coach to take on the vacant Men’s Reserves role left vacant by the departure of former co-coaches Emmet Sheehan and David Winton.

Giacomi arrives in the role with a firm understanding of the club’s community football program, which is home to over 300 male players, having coached the Royals under-20 team in 2021.

His 2021 under-20 team is full of players he has been coaching since under-13s, whilst Giacomi has been involved in the Senior Men’s set-up as recently as 2019, when he worked alongside former Senior Men’s Coach Michael Curcija in a hugely successful period for the club.

No stranger to the journey many of his players will be embarking on, Giacomi said he was excited to take on the role.

“It’s a very exciting appointment for me and one I was happy to take on,” Giacomi said.

“A lot of the boys I’ve been coaching in the juniors for the last few years I’ve had from under-13s up to under-20s last year, and for me the journey hasn’t just been about winning games of football.

“For me, winning has been seeing kids progress as players and as people. I went through the juniors of this club to become a senior player, and that’s what I hope for these boys.

“A bit’s changed since my day and there’s more competition, but for me this role is about helping players prepare for that next step at our club.”

Giacomi said he had positive discussions with the club’s Senior Men’s Coach, Vitale Ferrante.

“I’ve known Vitale for a long, long time. I respect and admire the work he’s done and his passion for the game. I think he’s a fantastic person for the senior role at our club and he suits the environment here well,” he said.

“I will work closely with him and I’ll be here to help him do his job.”

With the senior men hoping to push for promotion to NPL3, Giacomi said the work being done in the reserves would be about helping ensure the club is ready for that next step.

“Preparing for next season there will be three things we want to do,” Giacomi said.

“We want to ensure the best younger players at the club are given the opportunity to step up into open-age football if that’s what they want to do, we want to push the older boys in the reserves to challenge for senior football and we want to give opportunities to NPL U21 players who are maybe sick of not getting a chance or want to start playing against bigger bodies to come and trial.

“We’re looking at mid-November for some trials, so we will advertise those when we have firm dates.”