He is one of the most polarising footballers to grace the Riverina League and took Wagga Tigers to their first premiership in nine years.
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Now after three seasons in charge at Robertson Oval, Shaun Campbell departs Wagga on Saturday to continue his playing career in Melbourne.
The dynamic, hard-running on-baller bid farewell to Tigers at their presentation on Friday night.
As he packs his backs and hits the highway, Campbell said he will always look back on his time at Wagga with fond memories.
“I’ve got mixed emotions I suppose,” Campbell said.
“Obviously I’ve loved my time here, loved playing, loved coaching, the club’s been really good by me.
“I really enjoyed the coaching, so mixed emotions, but on the same token, I’m looking forward to getting back to Melbourne and playing down there.”
Campbell was a somewhat controversial appointment when he arrived at Robertson Oval.
Tigers had made the hard decision not to reappoint incumbent coach Matt Rava, who had taken the club within four points of a grand final appearance.
Campbell, who was 25 at the time, arrived with big wraps and it did not take him long to deliver.
On the back of some quality recruits, Campbell took Wagga Tigers to a premiership in his first year, defeating Leeton-Whitton by four points at Robertson Oval.
“It certainly did fall into place,” Campbell recalls.
“It was just an unbelievable football side. One you probably won’t see again for a long, long while.
“It’s just a shame we couldn’t hold them together.
“It was probably good to start off that way, I suppose, experience that and then fall away, as opposed to climb maybe. It was good to experience that, when you’re right at the top.”
Campbell is proud of what he achieved as Tigers coach.
“I’m proud even just to come here and take it on and give it a go,” he said.
“Take a risk and come up here and coach and get the experience of doing it. Obviously going really well and then stuck by it for the last couple of years even though they’ve been tough.”
Asked if he had his time over again, would he make the trip to Wagga, Campbell replied without hesitation.
“Yeah absolutely. 100 per cent I would. I wouldn’t change anything,” he said.
“I got to experience the highs and the lows and will be better off for that.”
Campbell said the coaching job helped him grow as an individual.
“I learnt a bit about myself I suppose. More, I learnt how to be patient a lot more. I was probably pretty, not fiery, but less patient in times gone by and learnt how to people manage,” he said.
“Just the experience of being senior coach of a football club.”
While Tigers achieved the ultimate in Campbell’s first year, the decline since then has been steep and sharp.
They missed finals in 2017 after a heavy player exodus and then lost more players the following off-season to drop to eighth position this year, winning just two games.
The decline of Tigers does not dampen Campbell’s outlook on his time at the club.
“I guess it sits alright,” he said.
“I guess there’s some things you can’t control and players leaving your football club for the reasons they did, you can’t do anything about. You would probably have an issue if they left on different grounds, or there were problems with the football club, but to go to play better footy and test themselves, which, in the first year they all did, as a football club everyone’s trying to develop their kids to eventually be able to push them on and play AFL so you can’t really argue with that.
“I guess it shows the quality that the club has, or had, or was able to attract in that they were able to move them on to play better footy. So in that regard, from that stand point, you can’t really argue and you have just got to cop it on the chin and hopefully replace them but we couldn’t replace them really.”
Wagga Tigers have appointed experienced coach Troy Maiden as Campbell’s replacement.
While he hopes the club can bounce back quickly, Campbell believes it may be a long road back.
“I think they are in for a long road back, to be honest, just with what they’ve lost and what they’ve got at the moment, but in saying that, you can turn it around pretty quickly with three or four really good footballers,” he said.
Campbell, often outspoken during his time as Tigers coach, was often a target for opposition clubs and supporters.
While many would be put off by some of the treatment, Campbell thrived.
“It didn’t bother me at all and to a certain extent, I used it a lot as well, I sort of fed off it,” he said.
“Back was against the wall, you can have a bit of fun with it and what not.
“I guess the first year it wasn’t so much, but it was more the second year after we’d won it. I didn’t mind it, that comes part and parcel with it, being the captain-coach and leading from the front, you’ve just got to expect that and I expected it every Saturday at two oclock, that you would just cop it for an hour and a half and that you have just got to deal with it.”
It led to a lot of fierce battles during his time here but Campbell has nothing but respect for his opponents.
“There’s a good few actually,” he said.
“I had a few battles with the Griffith boys out there. Their midfield was always pretty sharp. And definitely the Leeton boys, when Ben Curley was there, and Bryce O’Garey and a few of them. I had some good battles with them. Then Collingullie have had some sharp footballers over the past few years with the Perrymans, Kennedys, Klemkes and what not.
“There has been some good footballers getting around that’s for sure.”
This season, the way Campbell plays the game brought attention from the AFL Riverina’s Match Review Panel (MRP). He was sensationally suspended for three games from a sling tackle in a pre-season game against Charles Sturt University.
He then was found not guilty after being reported by the MRP for a bump in Riverina League’s representative showdown against Farrer League.
Campbell admits his treatment by the MRP was something that frustrated him greatly at the time.
“I don’t know if it affected me greatly. At the time it probably did but yeah, it’s pretty unfortunate that those sort of things are happening,” he said.
“They’re looking for reasons to suspend people as opposed to looking for reasons to let people off. That’s the mentality of it unfortunately. There’s a lot of improvement needed. Especially there.
“It’s never happened before in a pre-season match, surely there’s got to be some leniency there, especially in a pre-season match when there is so much grey area around it. Like, whose tribunal do you sit in front of if you and play down halfway between here and Albury? The bloke I got wasn’t even registered. There’s so much grey area around it. It’s just got to be cleared up.
“Then for the interleague one, there’s a lot of grey area there too. One, why are you doing it, because you’re not doing yourself any favours when you’re already battling to get people to play it.
“Then picking blokes out like that by the match review panel. Who is the match review panel? There’s no faces to it, no one is responsible for it, someone’s got to be able to put their hand up for it and say I’m the match review panel so they can answer the questions people have got. At the moment, it’s just stupid. They can do whatever they like and it’s not good enough. They need a big clean out or a big review.”
He admits that Shaun Campbell on the field and the one off it, can be two different people.
There is a side to the Tigers coach that would surprise many. A keen traveller, Campbell speaks fluent Spanish. He established himself as a star fourth-grade cricketer for St Michaels, while working a number of jobs, such as bricklaying, personal trainer, casual AFL development officer and pool installer during his time here.
“I’m a bit different on the football field than I am as a bloke, as some people have worked out,” he said.
“I love to do a lot of different things and to keep adding strings to the bow, keeping everyone and myself guessing and always learning and doing a lot of different things.”
Campbell’s immediate future lies in Melbourne.
He is in the process of signing with a new club as a player only. He has been accepted into university to study exercise science.
“I’d love to keep coaching but just for the meantime I’m going to get down there, get settled in be another number somewhere and just have a kick around,” he said.
“I’ve got accepted into uni, so I don’t know how busy I’m going to be with that, work and footy so I’m just going to play next year, get back to really enjoying it again, hunt the footy, not have much else to worry about and then go from there. I’ve got no doubt a coaching role will pop up in the future and just go from there. But I definitely want to coach again. I love it.”
Campbell has nothing but good things to say about Wagga Tigers and will miss the city as a whole.
“Yeah I’ve loved it. Tigers are a very welcoming, hospitable club and whenever I had an issue, they would step in and help me out. They would do anything, back me, trust me. They’re a great club,” he said.
“I’ve made some great friends playing cricket and footy and I’m definitely going to miss that country vibe.”
Campbell hopes he can be remembered as a leader.
“Probably just as a good leader, I reckon, that could just stand up and lead from the front, which I think I’ve done,” he said.
“I definitely walked the line on the football field and loved to do that. I’m pretty loud and what not on there and I probably play a pretty unique brand of footy but I’m pretty proud of it and will keep doing so.
“I’d just like to be remembered as a good leader and someone who the boys could look up to.”
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