Gold Coast SUNS coach Rodney Eade has welcomed three country coaches into pre-season training sessions this week.
 
The coaches, each from three different states in Australia, have been guided by Eade’s expertise as part of their personal coaching development.
 
“We were certainly more than happy to open the doors to help the young coaches,” Eade told goldcoastfc.com.au.
 
“They’ve asked plenty of questions and been involved in most of our sessions. I certainly think they’ve got a bit out of it, hopefully it helps their coaching future.”
 
One of the guests, Jamason Daniels, has a personal connection with Eade after spending time on the rookie list at the Western Bulldogs in 2009 and 2010.
 
The 25-year-old is only in his second year as coach at the Tatura Football Club in Victoria's Goulburn Valley Football League and jumped at the chance to develop his coaching skills while once again work alongside Eade.
 
Daniels said the main goal during his time at the SUNS was to ensure he not only developed his personal coaching style, but also gained insider training knowledge.
 
“Implanting game structures at training and some drills that we can do back home and learning some terminology and things to go back and teach the boys,” he said.
 
“Tough initiation last year but we’ve [Tutura Football Club] picked up a few players so loving the coaching side and juggling that with playing.”
 
The second coaching guest, Zane Littlejohn, is heading into his fifth year with the North Launceston Football Club and has two Tasmanian State League premiership titles under his belt.
 
“I’m a lifelong learner and just really wanted to continue to learn and not miss any opportunities, I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to come up and spend a few days here,” he said.
 
“It’s been very valuable.”
 
For Littlejohn, spending a week with the SUNS has boosted his confidence in what he is trying to achieve back home.
 
“One of the things that I really like out of all this time is helping me understand and giving me the confidence that what I’m trying to implement back at North Launceston is along the same type of things,” he said.
 
“It’s obviously been really impressive to see the work rate of the players and the coaches and the effort they put in.”
 
Former Noosa Tigers coach, James Gellie, was the final guest to be involved with the SUNS this week.
 
The Victorian native has been equally impressed with the professionalism of the Gold Coast players and has found value in witnessing the inner workings of the coaching and development staff.
 
“Rocket is lucky that he has the personnel and the quality of people and coaches to help him out and has been able to delegate and have confidence in his support staff, so that’s been a really good learning,” he said. 
 
“The biggest thing I’ve probably learnt is as a senior coach you don’t have to be doing everything.”
 
Eade hoped the time each young coach spent with the Gold Coast SUNS would prove beneficial and noted the club would continue to monitor their progress.