Mark Riley (Australian rules coach)

Mark Riley is an Australian rules football coach, who acted briefly as the caretaker coach of the Melbourne Football Club in 2007.^[1] He is currently an assistant coach with the Carlton Football Club.

As a player Riley played for Claremont in the WAFL, at junior levels, but never played league football after badly injuring his knee. He then played Sunday league football as well as cricket, including being selected for a state squad. As a teacher, he then moved to small rural towns including Hyden, Narrogin and Kellerberrin. At Kellerberrin he coached Gerard Neesham and built up a friendship that would later see Riley take over from Neesham as coach of Claremont when Neesham was appointed coach of the newly formed Fremantle Football Club in mid 1994. Riley would lead Claremont to the 1994 WAFL Grand Final, but they lost to East Fremantle.^[2]

He then joined Fremantle on its entry into the AFL in 1995 and was the club's development coach from 1995–97 and assistant coach from 1998-2000. 2001 and 2002 saw him return to Claremont as senior coach where he was awarded the JJ Leonard Western Australian Football Coach of the Year award in 2002 before he joined Neale Daniher, who was also an assistant coach at Fremantle under Neesham, at Melbourne in 2003 as an assistant coach. When Daniher resigned in the middle of the 2007 season, Riley was appointed the caretaker coach of Melbourne for the remainder of the 2007 season from Round 14 onwards. Melbourne won three of the nine games he coached to finish 14th, but Riley was not retained for the 2008 season, being replaced by Dean Bailey. He joined the Carlton Football Club in 2008 as an assistant coach, mainly focusing on the Blues' midfield. At the end of 2009, RIley was presented with the AFL Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year after doing a fine job with the Carlton midfielders.

References

1. ^ http://www.afl.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=208&newsId=46139
2. ^ http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/making-his-mark/2007/06/28/1182624079168.html

External links

• Carlton FC Biography

Sporting positions
Preceded by Neale Daniher	Melbourne Football Club coach 2007 (caretaker)	Succeeded by Dean Bailey

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Name	Riley, Mark
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