After a 2025 of rebuilding culture and personnel at Merrigum Football Club, president Cameron Scorey and the committee have injected fresh blood to helm the senior side in 2026.

The club has appointed new coaches Jason Verhoven and Dean Wileman to share the top job at Merrigum next season, with both bringing experience across senior, reserves and junior coaching.

On top of football coaching, both have led cricket sides, which will only add to the depth of leadership the duo can provide the club next season and beyond.

While Verhoven has been in the orbit of the club, he hasn’t been directly involved, while Wileman was a past player with the Bulldogs and has extensive coaching experience with Stanhope reserves and under-18s.

This contrast of experience with the club should work in the coaches’ favour, with the main goal for 2026 being to establish a strong culture and increase participation.

Scorey emphasised the club’s excitement at the new appointment, highlighting that the new era of Merrigum was here, and the future was bright for a club that had struggled recently.

“As president, I’m thrilled to announce that Jason and Dean will be taking the reins as senior co-coaches,” he said.

“Both bring great experience, energy and a genuine passion for the club, and I’m confident their partnership will set us up for success both on and off the field.

“It’s an exciting new chapter for our playing group and the wider community, and I can’t wait to see what we achieve together under their leadership.”

Verhoven said that while he hadn’t had any direct engagement with the club in the past, he was excited about the opportunity to have a fresh slate and coach with someone he had been friends with for over four decades.

“I actually haven’t had any involvement with the football club as such, so I’m coming in as a fresh slate if that’s the way you want to look at it, a fresh start and fresh canvas,” he said.

“Dean and I have been good mates for 40 years plus, so we actually spoke about it two or three years ago about coaching together.

“Dean lives in Merrigum so he brings that community experience, and our goal really is to not have any forfeits because the seniors had a few this season.

“It’d be nice to win a few games, but we’re not worried about setting any wins or loss goals, we actually want to be competitive and demand respect from the league again.”

Verhoven expressed his desire to follow in the footsteps of Merrigum’s netball program, which did well in 2025, as the 17-and-under side won the grand final, B-grade and C-reserve made the prelim and A-grade fell just short of a finals berth.

“The netball side of things is really good, they won the 17s this year, and they’re pretty strong in the senior level, so they have a really good vibe around there,” he said.

“We want to sort of bring that back over to the footy side and make it fun to be around and a positive environment where people want to come again.

“(Implementing club culture) that’s the most important thing, if you don’t get that right, then you’ve got no base to start with.”

Kyabram Free Press Google News Panels

Monday, 16th August 2027

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