Coach In Focus – Dave Da Silva

Dave is passionate about his footy and is currently serving on the AMPJFC committee as well as coaching. He is an AMPJFC Life Member awarded for his continued service to the Club and has been a recipient of the Senior Club Person of the Year Award. Dave has come out of retirement to take on the role as Year 10 coach for 2019.

Meet our Year 10 Coach Dave Da Silva

Name: David da Silva

1.How long have you been coaching footy for at AMPJFC and other clubs?

Approximately 12 years

2. Did you play footy yourself as a youngster. If so who for and what age till.

Hampton Park in sth eastern suburbs of Melbourne / 17 years old

3. What AFL team do you support? Hawks (since birth)

4. Who was your best coach when you played? Why? 

Ernie from Hampton Park JFC – created team spirit which was hard to match

5. What age groups have you coached?

Auskick through to Yr 10’s

6. What got you into coaching?

Asked to assist at Auskick level, a week later thrown the reins. Particularly motivated by watching some of our youth teams early on get spanked by bigger clubs, I thought “why should Applecross be the whipping boys when we’ve got so much talent?”

7. What do you enjoy about coaching?

Influencing young lives in a positive way

8. What is your stand out moment as a coach?

Maybe the hawks victory in the wet years ago vs (at the time) the Attadale all stars – blue collar courage beat blue ribbon class that day/ the team lifted the roof off the clubrooms at the ‘G’ afterwards.

Maybe Kyla Sanchez crying as we sang the team song for the last time way back at the end of a season several years ao

9. What is your catch phrase that you always say to your players eg words of wisdom, inspirational message etc

“When its your time to go….you go!”

What Keith says: “Dave da Silva is a professional. He cares about the boys. It’s going to be an awesome season”

What Peter says: “Dave underpins everything our Club stands for with his commitment and passion”.