AFL great appointed new Director of Sport

Mentone Grammar is delighted to announce the appointment of former AFL coach, Brenton Sanderson, as our new Director of Sport. 

Brenton is a high-performance coach with over 30 years’ experience across the AFL industry. He comes to Mentone Grammar from a recent role as the National Community Umpiring Manager for the AFL where he collaboratively developed and implemented a national community umpiring strategy in consultation with all State umpiring bodies. He was responsible for growing umpire participation numbers across a diverse group of participants, including women and girls, as well as multicultural and aboriginal groups, to ensure umpiring was represented across the entire community.  

Prior to this, Brenton has held positions as the Assistant Coach of Collingwood Football Club, Head of the AFL National Academy, Senior Coach at Adelaide Football Club, Assistant Coach at Geelong Football Club, and from 1992 – 2005 was a successful professional AFL player at Geelong, Collingwood and Adelaide Football Clubs.  

Brenton is a dedicated sports professional and has considerable experience working in a high-performance environment. He brings expertise in designing and implementing strategic plans and is passionate about supporting the development of youth programs. As Head of the AFL National Academy, his role was to identify and select Australia’s best football talent at the age of 15, then implement an accelerated 24-month program to provide these athletes with opportunities to develop their leadership, personal skills and on-field talents. This experience and expertise will be invaluable in developing our School’s sporting programs. 

Brenton holds a Master of Sports Administration, Executive Certificate in AFL Management, and a Bachelor of Commerce from Deakin University. He is currently studying a Diploma of Counselling and just happens to be a qualified Pilot! 

Brenton will bring his extensive knowledge of strategic development, program design, operational management, and leadership to take the sporting program at Mentone Grammar to new heights as we move into an exciting new era for the School. As the father of three young children, Brenton is excited to develop a sports program that is the envy of other schools. 

We very much look forward to Brenton joining Mentone Grammar in 2023.