INTERVIEW: Heath Younie - 14 September 2026

0:00Port Adelaide have appointed their head of development and it's doubling as a sample coach as well. Heath Uni is the man, congratulations. Thanks guys. Appreciate the getting on the show. Have always a pleasure. Firstly, excited about the role. Yeah, look, it's, um, I'm really excited. It was one of those ones that come out of the blue. Um, time is great. Traditional footy club. Um, I've always, I've always had a great respect for Port even when I played it in North. Um, yeah, they're in a really, really good position and looking forward to the role. Um, with the top of young players that are going to come into the club and the current ones that are there. Uh, in the key pillars of a, uh, Phil Club these days, how important do you reckon that development pillar is now? Oh, I look at on-bait voice. Yeah, my two. I, I think it's, I think it's pivoted all I think clubs now, given, um, you know, the draft process and, and all those sort of things, um, development, development for me is not

1:04just the first, second, third year. I think development is, is the entire list and, and it's holistic, you know, like it's super important to be able to fast track your players as quick as they can to get up to AFL level and, um, it's, it's really important. And we can see previously with Tasmania going after, I believe, uh, one of the best in our due lap. And so clubs are now, uh, now understanding how important it is. And, um, as I said before, it's, it's not for the first year player. It goes across your list because my belief is, is development is never linear. Um, it's always ups and downs as a career. And our job is coaches to try and bridge the gaps between a player's best and their, and their worst. Yeah, good, cool. Were you headhunter for this role? I look quite bending contact. I obviously had a relationship with, with Ben, um, and he had some boys in the talent pathway. So he reached out at different stages and, and just asked what I'll be interested to, to, to take the leap back into AFL land.

2:04Um, and that progressed and I know Josh and, so yeah, it was sort of one of those ones that come out of the blue and, and it progressed really quickly and the more I spoke to, probably Ben and, and certainly, um, and, and Josh, the more real it become and, at just the time it was brilliant for me and hopefully for the club, given where the club's at and what they're about to go through. Um, and to me, I get to stay in my, in, in my home, in my state, where my wife and my kids are, were born and raised. So it just made sense and, uh, and I'm really grateful, uh, given the, given the club port out of the, uh, for traditional perspective. You had a development and, sample coach, uh, it's a different model than we've had before. It, it's not too big a portfolio, is it? Well, look, every club will do slightly different to me. I, I, I, I had a late, I did, I did both. Right. Um, so every club across Australia and the AFL will go with a different model. There's no right or wrong. It just depends on where the club is at at that time.

3:06Probably the benefit for me doing it off experienced it before, but given, um, given we're going to bring in a number of young players, it's able to give real clarity to the, to the messaging, even that I'll be working a lot with them, um, during the day and then just makes natural sense to be able to coach them on game day and keep it really calm and, um, and consistent around the messaging. But I'll have great support, um, in and around that program at, uh, at a development play level with Matt Burgess, uh, who'd been there for 12 months doing a wonderful job, um, putting together a really strong list of development players. Heath, congratulations. Look, I think it's a terrific appointment for port, um, I've seen your development and growth through the sample, but I can't help but feel a little bit ironic that the president of port David Koch doesn't rate the sample as a development ground for his players yet they go and grab the state samples. Number one development coach in you Heath, great. I mean, Heath, I just can't but feel the ironic sense of that.

4:10Did you, did you hear his quote? Oh, I'll have them. But obviously it's been a discussion over in, uh, uh, long period of time. Uh, Stephen, all I know is, you know, I've only been a few days, uh, since the appointment, all I know is for the next two years we're in the sample and, um, my experience tells me I'll be doing. Robert here. There you are surrounded by fans, sharing wings, sharing drinks, high-fiving random strangers. Everybody remembers the game. Nobody remembers the guy coughing behind you until a few days later at 2 a.m. You wake up with the fever and your throats on fire. Now what, urgent care, close, ER, slam, telehealth, maybe, but the pharmacy's closed. You needed a medical emergency kit. These aren't first aid kits. They contain essential prescriptions used for over 30 common conditions, sinus and ear infection, UTIs, stomach bug, travelers diarrhea and more. On hand before you need them. Use your doctor developed guidebook to select the right prescription or call their telemedicine

5:10doctor standing by. It's like an urgent care and drugstore at home. When you're sick, traveling or stranded, you'll wish you ordered a medical emergency kit. Order online in minutes and it's shipped to your door and say $45 with my promo code blue at urgentcarekit.com slash blue. That's promo code blue at urgentcarekit.com slash blue. The best job I can set up a program that can compete at sample levels of best I can. Now, hopefully my experience is evident to that. My time at another club and my job will be giving them the best environment for our players to develop. The next two years, that's in the sample and we'll be doing as good a job as we can be to give them that opportunity. And I know you will. People ring say, what do you say? Here's what David Corset on the 5.00.00.00. We're done. That's because the rules are impeding the development of our younger players.

6:11Do you think it does? You're now in charge of that. So from the top, they're saying it impedes the development of your players. So you know both sides of the fence. What would you say to David? Well, I haven't had a chance to speak to David. To be honest, as I said, I'm only new in. I'm not paid to make those decisions. All I'm paid to do is to set up a program that give our players the best chance. And for the next two years, that is in the sample and we'll be doing the best job I can to do that. Those guys who are making those comments, that's their job. It's above my pay, pay grade to be fair. As I said, the next two years we'll play out and we'll go from there. But this discussion to be honest has been going on when I was at Adelaide. So it hasn't changed. We'll just, we'll make those decisions as we go. Yeah, okay. And unfair, I mean, you bring that up. But it is all running teeth. And I'm not trying to frame you or anything. I think you're going to be fantastic. You know where I come from, I rate this as a development ground the sample.

7:14I think the best place have come out of this. So for him to say that or be keen to see what your opinion was. So please don't feel that I'm trying to frame you. No, no. And it's and you're, you're right to have a task that question. All I know is that I've been here for what two seasons now. And I haven't even had a chance to really sit down. But my job is to give the AFL listed players the best program. I can incontultation with the other coaches and staff to give them the best chance. If that's in, I know what I do know. It's in the sample for the next three years. So that's fantastic. And we'll give it, we'll give our best account of that. Hey, from the back of that. Have you got any views on how Port Adelaide do go about recruiting and handling contract deploys? It's, I think since it sort of occurred, which was 2014, it's 12 years now. And I would say that it's probably more and more difficult to try and get hold of those

8:18contract deploys for both Adelaide and Port. Yeah, I think I've got a, yeah, look, I haven't been in it for a few years to me. But what I do know is the rules, the rules are a little bit easier when I first did it. To be able to attract and contract some of these players. I have a personal view in that. For me, it's about trying to find the best players that have capability of playing lead footy if given the opportunity now. We're there giving names like that, some of these players have left our system for whatever reason. Part of my opinion is trying to get them back in to sample level. And if that means for one or two years and then they go back to a sample club, that's we've done our job. And I'm in the past PSC more, Jimmy Matthews at Adelaide who went on to be lead players at certain NORD post their time at Adelaide and become premiership players. And I think that's just as important to try and give these guys the best available option

9:24to get back into sample footy. And if that's true, Adelaide or Porto Lade in my perspective, well, that's a great thing. And that's what we'll do. We'll just go and scale the earth. That's why I'm trying to find the best available players in South Australia and get them back into the sample club. Do you assess the current list and what they need or is that already done by all the coaches in the exit interviews and the like and then you get all those notes and then work on that? Yeah, well, I haven't had a chance to sit down with any of those guys at the moment. There will be all that we've done and managed by the list management team. In relation to our contract players or our development players, yeah, I've had a couple of conversations with Paul Stewart and a couple of others about where they're at and then I just start to pull on a couple of my contacts out there and seeing what other players we can attract. But from an IFAO, this perspective, Jason and Kryps and Jeff Parker will be managing

10:25a way through that and no doubt they'll ask some questions. Given more or awful last four years in the sample, I've got a pretty good understanding of the talent coming through. Excellent stuff. I think it's an absolutely critical preseason for our club and if we're to jump up quickly, it's going to be on this preseason. So all the best with it. Glad you're in the chair. Glad I'm not coaching the game, so you were playing in the butt, but I really do want to see that you do very well in this position. Hey, congratulations. Hey, guys, really appreciate the sport. Thanks for having me on. We'll speak again. No doubt about that. Great point. The great appointment is ahead of development and also sample coach of Port Adelaide. Dave Roberts here. There you are surrounded by fans, sharing wings, sharing drinks, high-fiving random strangers. Everybody remembers the game. Nobody remembers the guy coughing behind you until a few days later. At 2 a.m., you wake up with a fever and your throat's on fire. Now what? Urgent care? Close. ER?

11:26Slam. Telehealth? Maybe. But the pharmacy's closed. You needed a medical emergency kit. These aren't first aid kits. They contain essential prescriptions used for over 30 common conditions. Sinus and ear infection. UTIs. Stomach bug. Travelers diaria and more. On hand before you need them. Enter Dr. Develop Guidebook to select the right prescription or call their telemedicine doctor standing by. It's like an urgent care and drugstore at home. When you're sick, traveling, or stranded, you'll wish you ordered a medical emergency kit. Order online in minutes and it's shipped to your door and say $45 with my promo code blue at urgentcarekit.com slash blue. That's promo code blue at urgentcarekit.com slash blue.