Guy McKenna - Men's Senior Coach
Guy McKenna had an outstanding playing career over 267 games in the AFL for the West Coast with many outstanding honours including being a two-time premiership player, three-time All Australian , two-time club champion, captain of the Eagles and AFL hall of famer.
Following his playing career Guy had a significant coaching career in the AFL with assistant coaching roles at West Coast , Collingwood and Essendon and was the Gold Coast Suns foundation senior coach from 2011-2014.
In recent years he has continued with his passion for coaching with a talent pathway coaching role with Cricket Victoria and has been the Senior Men’s Coach at Beaumaris Football Club in Premier B in the VAFA competition over the last 5 seasons.
2023 will be Bluey’s first in charge of Grammarians and his experience in developing young players is a great match for our current playing list.
Jono Nash – Men’s Senior Assistant Coach
Jonno joined CGFC in 2023 as the reserves and development coach before becoming a senior assistant ahead of the 2024 season.
He is passionate about getting the most out of the talented youngsters graduating from the school and entering the Fields’ program.
Jonno was a VAFA journeyman, playing across a number of teams, but primarily featuring with Beaumaris, his junior club.
He was a member of Caulfield Grammar’s last outright premiership team in 2007 and captained the First XVIII in 2008.
Jonno is a best and fairest winner at the Sandringham Dragons, a VFL player at the Sandringham Zebras and a VAFA Big V representative.
In his professional life, Jonno is media and content professional, having held positions at the Herald Sun, Channel 10, ESPN and SEN. He is currently a senior producer at Entain.
Lachie Rayner - Men's Senior Assistant Coach
Lachie joined CGFC straight after finishing at Caulfield Grammar in 2013. He has held a variety of coaching roles in a number of sports and has had extensive experience developing junior footballers at Caulfield Bears JFC. He will work with Bluey on our midfield group.
A player from 2014-2019, Lach moved into coaching our Under 19’s for the past 2 seasons, including the minor premiership in 2021.
Jason Bek - Men's Reserve Coach
Jason has coached at a variety of levels from Under 18 to senior level, he is particularly interested in the development of young players at senior level and enjoy being part of the building process. Jason originally came from Moe in the Gippsland league. He has been coaching since 1996 with a few small sabbaticals in between. Having a break away from football clubs for seasons 2018 to 2020 has re-charged the batteries and reinvigorated him to coach again in 2021 and 2022. After coaching in country Football for most of his life until 2015 he then spent the 2016/2017 in the VAFA with Uni Blues and season 2021/22 with Old Haileybury and is looking forward to helping the boys at old Caulfield grow and improve in season 2024.
Chris Mathieson - Under 19s Coach
Chris brings many years of experience having begun coaching when he finished playing due to injury in his early 20s. First coaching our Under 19s in 2000, he has coached many of our stars at CGFC over the years. Chris has had coaching stints with our Reserves team, Senior Assistant, VAFA State Teams, junior footy and in the VFL. Premierships and numerous finals campaigns have been features of his journey. He is a lifelong Grammarian who has also served as President of the Caulfield Grammarians Association.
Having a background in Phys Ed teaching, Osteopathy, University Lecturing and leading corporate teams, Chris has a determined passion for developing people. With an emphasis on education and recognizing individual strengths, he brings out the best in our young chargers by building the belief and confidence in each player, having them focus on what they can bring to better the team. Chris has lead the way in establishing two under 19 teams this season, for the very first time, with a view to ensuring the success of our program for years to come.
Stephen Kendall - Under 19s Assistant Coach
Stephen Kendall in his 5th year as Assistant Under 19s coach. Stephen attended CGS (Caulfield Campus) from prep through to year 12 (1985-1997) and played first Football, Tennis and Water Polo. Stephen's family has a long association with the school and club with his father, two uncles and two cousins attending the school and playing for CGFC. His father, David who is still an avid supporter of the club played 100 games and was president for 4 years (1966-69).
- Player from 1998 to 2009 (151 games)
- 2002 CGFC Premier C Reserves Premiership player
Marc Cassidy - Under 19's Second team Coach
Marc began his playing journey with CGFC in 1991 as a year 11 student playing a handful of games for the U19’s, officially landing at the club as U19’s player in 1993 (runner up U19 B & F 1993) and playing Seniors and Reserves until 2006 when Marc retired for the first time. Marc played in both Seniors and Reserves Premierships through this period and has played over 200 games for CGFC, including a game in the reserves last year at the tender age of 49 (still receiving treatment). Marc is a life member of CGFC and has a great family legacy with CGFC.
Danielle Distefano - Women's Senior Coach
Dani comes into the senior women’s coaching role at CGFC in 2024 after 3 years of coaching women’s AFL in both Melbourne and Canberra. A former midfielder and forward pocket, Dani brings considerable experience not only playing in, but also captaining and coaching many finals campaigns, including 3 grand final appearances and 2 premierships in 5 years.
Dani has a deep understanding of women’s AFL and female athletes. Dani drives success through forging strong relationships with players, bringing the best out of individuals, and driving high performance and professionalism. She does this by fostering a positive culture where individualism, diversity and inclusion is celebrated.
Dani looks forward to working with the rest of the women’s coaching team to build on the recent success of the CGFC women’s program.
James Rankin - Women's Senior Assistant Coach
Our women’s program welcomes James Rankin as Senior Assistant Coach. James has played footy at all levels and ages, with Caulfield Bears being his home club. He still currently plays for Mordialloc Supers, as he can “no longer keep up with the young blokes” - his words. James also has a background in psychology and with his profession as a therapist, has proven invaluable in working with the mindset of the playing group. sitting nicely between the dynamacism of Dani and the experience of Lachy.
Lachlan Worthy – Women’s Reserves Coach
Lachlan’s coaching journey began in Sydney in the year 2000 when he became the inaugural coach of Sydney University Women’s football team in the fledgling SWAFL (the precursor to AFL Sydney Women’s competition). Lachlan took the club to two premierships and a grand final loss in double overtime. During this time he also coached the NSW team in the 2000, 2001 and 2002 National Football Championships finishing second to Victoria in both 2000 and 2002. A career highlight for Lachlan came when he was announced as the SWAFL Coach of the Decade (2000 – 2009).
In 2017 Lachlan coached the St. Kevins Saints reserves team and lead them to the Division 4 Grand Final. In 2018 an opportunity arose to build a team from scratch with the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) sporting section. Lachlan was able to guide them to a Preliminary Final in their first year and narrowly missed the finals in their second year. After 2020, Lachlan joined the St.Bede’s Mentone Tigers Women’s program as the Senior Assistant Coach, we he helped guide the team to the 2021 Prem C Preliminary Final and the 2022 Premier C Premiership.
With 180 games coaching experience across two states, Lachlan is most proud of being able to help so many players progress their football journey, whether its playing in the AFLW and VFLW or simply learning a new skill and having fun with their mates.
The 2024 season will be Lachlan’s first with CGFC and with such a wide ranging and enthusiastic playing group and he can’t wait to get stuck into it.