Daniel Donati to coach his sixth straight grand final after move from Balwyn to Barwon Heads

Well before the end of it, Brendan Curry decided his football club, Barwon Heads, had its new senior coach.

In his many years in the game – Curry had been a long-time general manager of VFL mainstay Williamstown – he thought he had never interviewed a more impressive individual than Daniel Donati.

“I got his number, met with him and after our chat I said to our president (Tim Goddard), ‘The search is over, we’ve got to get him, let’s just offer him the job’,’’ Barwon Heads football manager Curry says.

“And that’s what we did. It was that simple.

“I did say he was the most impressive person I’d ever interviewed in my whole football career, player or coach. I rang up all the other candidates for our coaching job and said, ‘Don’t worry about it, we’ve got our man, I don’t want to waste your time’.’’

Almost 12 months on, Donati is preparing to take Barwon Heads – the Seagulls – into the Bellarine league grand final against Torquay.

Donati, 44, is in his sixth year as a senior coach.

This Saturday will be his sixth grand final, a record that Curry says marks him out as one of the best coaches in local football.

Long-serving Balwyn president Richard Wilson agrees with the assessment.

He says Donati – whose head turns to “Nuts’’ – has an ability to “extract the absolute best out of people’’.

Donati coached Balwyn for five years in the top division of the Eastern league, taking the Tigers to four premierships.

He had arrived at the club when it was coming to terms with the death of popular player Shaun Bergin.

The former Hawthorn AFL rookie had been knocked unconscious in a marking contest in a finals match in September, 2011.

He was taken off life support soon after; his death flattened Balwyn like no opponent ever could.

“It was a very, very difficult time for the football club, after the devastating passing of Shaun,’’ Donati recalls.

“I took over seven or eight weeks after that happened. It was a very confronting time for Balwyn and for the playing group. In the end, quite a few players – 20-plus – left the club, for various reasons. I came in and sort of had to help repiece that place together.

“Obviously the rest is history. We ended up winning the grand final that year. It was a pretty amazing time.’’

Balwyn came from the elimination final to take the 2012 flag.

Retaining 21 of the 22 premiership players, the Tigers won it again in 2013.

They fell to Norwood in the 2014 grand final, but lifted the cup again in 2015 and ’16.

Many Eastern followers regard the Balwyn teams of that era as among the best seen in the league.

“Because we’d lost so many players, we had to recruit a lot and it was the type of people we went for that was important,’’ Donati says.

“We didn’t recruit AFL players. There were a couple of ex-VFL players. There were kids from other clubs. And we just built a culture of togetherness. We really galvanised over what was a tragic 2011. There was genuine meaning to the group and I guess that’s my favourite thing about being a footy coach, connecting people and bringing them along the journey.

“The first year was extraordinary and then we were able to build on that. We stayed together and picked up one or two a year, bolstering the list. Amazing time for us.’’

*****

A long-striding right-footer with sparkling skills he employed on a wing, Donati came out of amateur club Old Xaverians, where he played in a senior premiership as an Under 19 player.

Richmond drafted him and in his two years at Punt Road he played one AFL game.

His move to the old Springvale in the VFL brought him another flag and the Norm Goss Medal as grand final best-afield in 1999.

Donati then crossed to West Adelaide in the SANFL for two years.

When he returned to Victoria, he joined a few former Vales’ teammates at Noble Park.

The urge to emerge in coaching came when he was captain of Noble.

Under the leadership of Donati and coach Denis Knight, Noble won its first two Eastern league premierships.

“I knew then I was pretty keen. I remember having a chat to Denis about it being something I wanted to do one day,’’ he says.

“It was after one of our premierships actually. I said, ‘Yeah, I reckon I’ll do it one day’. I always had it in me. I loved being the captain of the footy club and talking when I was at Noble Park.’’

He made his move into coaching in 2009 at Lara, spending three seasons as an assistant to Ben Harris.

Balwyn appointed him to replace Daniel Harford ahead of the 2012 season.

Wilson says the Tigers weren’t the best team in Eastern that year, but played the best football at the right time.

“We got that first one (flag) and it built from there,’’ he says. “It’s a fantastic record.’’

Wilson points out that Donati coached the Tigers in the “unrestricted era’’ of no salary and points caps.

“What really would have been a test for him was these regulated years,’’ he says.

“But at the end of the day, you can only work in the environment of the time and on that basis he’s got to be right up there, right at the pointy end, in terms of coaches in local footy. He related to our guys, he led them, had a good structure behind him, the culture was there … he ticked every box. He had them playing for him at a level that generates premierships.’’

After what Wilson describes as five “super years’’, Donati stood down for work reasons.

“My business was going really well at the time – unfortunately, as a travel business, Covid wasn’t kind to it – but I was travelling a lot and as everyone knows, coaching takes up a lot of time and it’s a big commitment,’’ he says.

“In the end, it was a decision between me and my business partner, along the lines of, I’d had my five years and it was time to put my time into the business and my family.’’

Donati took a year off and returned to Old Xaverians, as possibly the most qualified assistant coach in amateur football history.

The role brought a “lighter touch, less commitment, less planning’’.

“I really enjoyed going back there. I was drafted from Old Xavs. It felt like home,’’ he says.

And given he had spent many happy childhood summer holidays in the area, there was a bit of homecoming about his acceptance of the Barwon Heads position.

Barwon Heads local Harris was his connection to the Seagulls.

They had both been at Lara and then Harris, a tough onballer, followed Donati to Balwyn and played in premierships.

This year, Harris is serving as Donati’s assistant.

“I got a phone call out of the blue from Barwon Heads … timing is everything with these things,’’ Donati says.

“My personal circumstances had changed, my work had changed, I was working down that way, I was open to it. The stars aligned.’’

*****

Brendan Curry is calling Barwon Heads a “massive underdog’’ for the grand final against Torquay.

It had certainly ceded favouritism to Drysdale in the first week of the finals.

Both Drysdale and Torquay achieved 17-1 records in the home-and-away rounds, their only loss coming against each other, and they were expected to fight out the flag.

Barwon Heads met Drysdale in the qualifying final and won by 14 points.

A week later, in the second semi-final, Torquay thumped Donati’s side by 75 points.

The preliminary final brought Barwon Heads up against Drysdale again. The result was the same as two weeks earlier, only this time with a greater winning margin.

“He forms great bonds with his players, develops a great chemistry with them. He understands how the game should be played. He gives his players confidence. I think they really want to play for him,’’ Curry says of Donati.

“We haven’t had an easy year. We’ve had to play 42 players. To beat a side that was 17-1 twice, that’s a big effort.’’

The grand final pits Donati against a great mate, Torquay coach and former VFL star Dom Gleeson.

Years ago, Donati gave Gleeson his first full-time job, when he moved to Melbourne. They worked together thumping the tub for Gatorade.

“Funny how it works out … early 2000s we were both Gatorade boys for a couple of years there and now here we are playing off in a grand final against each other,’’ Donati says.

In the past few days, Curry has had supporters come up to him and say they weren’t expecting the Seagulls to make the grand final.

His response has been the same: “Well, we do have a very good coach steering the ship!’’