Current Allansford senior football coach Tim Nowell goes Under the Auld Pump this week, discussing his side's stirring start to the Warrnambool and District league season, growing up in Colac, to working in the mines and his success in Go-Kart racing up in Queensland.
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TIM NOWELL
AT A GLANCE
Born in Colac on January 12, 1977.
Wife: Hannah. Children: Georgie, Ella and Thomas.
Parents: Stuart and Vicki. Siblings: Dale and Matthew.
Education, Colac East Primary School before going to Colac Technical School.
Sporting highlight: Would be back in 2015 when I came third in the Queensland Go-Kart Titles.
Tim, we'll speak about your sporting highlight regarding the go-karts in a few minutes but you are the senior coach at Allansford Football Netball Club and after eight games you're sitting in equal top spot with seven wins and one loss. Undoubtedly, you would be happy with how the Cats are playing at this stage of the season. Is that a fair comment?
Yes, it's a fair comment. If you had told me at the start of the season we would be sitting in equal top spot after eight games I would be very happy.
Before we speak about your role as senior coach at Allansford, where did your footy career begin?
My footy career started out with South Colac who played in the Colac and District Football League in the under 13s. I played a bit of footy there before getting caught up in motorcross sports but when I was 16-years-old I went back to footy and was fortunate enough to play in the under 17 premiership side with South Colac. I then went and played with East Geelong. I had moved to Geelong for work as a motor mechanic and a bloke I was working with was playing footy at East Geelong and he encouraged me to join the club. I played with East Geelong for seven seasons before moving up to North Queensland where I got a job in the mines.
What type of job enticed you up to the mines in North Queensland?
I picked up a job as a fitter mechanic in the open cut mine at Moranbah. I was mainly working in a basalt quarry but the main thing they work on in the mines in that area is coal. There's a lot of fly in and fly out workers there. It can get really hot in that part of the world. The humidity is really hard to take. I'll never forget working on a D11 bulldozer one day and it had broken down and workers were waiting for it and I had to work on it in 95 per cent humidity.
They had all types of earth moving equipment at the open mine. It was a wonderful experience working on a variety of machinery. The humidity really takes its toll on people out there. I ended up in a management role with the company before leaving after eight years and came down to the south-west of Victoria.
Tim, I take it in your time in North Queensland you never played footy?
No. It was just too hot. I got involved with motor-cross events when I was 11-years-old with my brother Dale down in Colac but we would go all over Victoria to compete in bitumen go-kart events.
It's a great family sport and it continued when I was living in North Queensland. I was fortunate enough to run third in the 2015 Queensland Go-Kart Titles. I had a bit of luck on my side as it rained for most of the morning and some of the drivers couldn't handle the wet conditions but I was comfortable in the going. There were 20 other go-karts in my class so it was a satisfying result to finish in third spot. The final was over 15 laps and you would do one lap in about 43 seconds so you're really moving along at a rapid rate.
How did you get involved in coaching at the Allansford Football Netball Club?
We had moved back to the south-west of Victoria and I had wanted to get involved with footy again. I saw in the Warrnambool Standard in 2019 that Allansford Football Netball Club was looking for an assistant under 18 coach to Bruce Buck. I applied for the job and got it. I coached the under 18s in 2020 and in 2022 I was appointed the senior coach plus I coached the under 18 side in that year but for the 2023 and 2024 seasons I've coached the senior side.
Tim, for a few years the senior side struggled but over the last couple of years things have turned around. What do you put that back to?
The Allansford Football Netball Club is in very good shape. We've got a great committee and everyone at the club is working together. There's a wonderful vibe through the club. I think one of the major reasons why we've been successful is we've given the younger players a chance and they have loved getting the opportunity to play at the senior level.
There's great chemistry between the players as we've got a good mixture of older and younger players. We had four wins in 2022 but we knew we were putting the foundations in place and that wasn't going to happen overnight. It was all going to take time. We won ten games in the seniors last year and as you've mentioned we've won seven at this stage of the season.
The netball side of the club is going great. The club is very happy with how our junior sides are going and it's going to be the young players who will be the future of the club in ten or 20 years' time.
What do you think of the standard of footy in the WDFNL this season?
I think it's pretty good. We have Nirranda as the benchmark side. I've said it before and I'll say it again Nirranda would be competitive if they played against some of the sides in the HFNL. Nirranda have to be congratulated for what they have done over the years. For a small rural community to be so competitive is quite amazing. I've noticed a lot of the clubs in the WDFNL are now blooding younger players. They are looking to the future and I believe that's the right model to follow.
Tim, are you staying on as the senior football coach at Allansford after this season?
Yes. I'm contracted to the end of 2025. I've got no complaints how things are going and as I said previously there's a great vibe around the club.
