Optimism is building at Rob Porter Reserve with Officer re-appointing senior playing coach Nathan Allen for 2026.
While the Kangaroos will finish eighth and miss finals in the Outer East Premier Division, the latter half of the season has been incredibly promising.
Officer won just one of its first 11 games, losing by an average of 38 points per contest, before flipping a switch and going 4-4 in the second half of 2025.
This stretch included wins against top-six teams in Mt Evelyn, Healesville and Woori Yallock.
“I’m stoked,” Allen said on what it meant to be coaching the side again in 2026.
“It gives you that chance to build.
“We’ve got through the challenging first half of the year and now we’re building momentum and confidence.
“And to now know that I’m continuing on we can start targeting a couple of things we need.
“I’m really looking forward to what we can do in the near future.”
Allen’s leadership and experience have been important for the young outfit in his first year at the helm.
In his time as senior coach, Allen has overseen the breakouts of emerging talents Brodie Snooks, Josh Westra, Jackson Honey, Diesel De Santis, Lachie Ward and more.
After seeing the development and maturity his side has shown from the beginning of the campaign to now, Allen is keen to see how much further the growth goes past this year.
“You can see if you watched our trainings from the start of the year to now, that’s where everything’s come from,” he said.
“The consistency and the effort they provide throughout the week has set us up and that has to continue.
“I can’t stress enough how much the confidence and belief is helping.
“Their attitudes have changed to think ‘we’ll move on and we’ll see what we can do about it’.
“They’ve wanted to put in the work, we haven’t had to force anything.”
While being the important voice during the huddle, Allen has also had a stellar season in the middle of the ground.
He has averaged 23 disposals per game and booted nine goals while appearing in every game, leading to being named in the best players nine times, the most of any Officer player.
“Just knowing the players are excited, that was the thing coming in, we wanted to create that environment that we can trust each other and we’re challenging every game,” Allen said of the culture that’s being built.
“I just can’t wait for next year to be honest.”
