Former Kyabram player Gary Learmonth was noticed in this unusual pose on Facebook on the weekend by a keen football follower, so entrenched in the game that he didn’t notice a grass parrot land on his shoulder while coaching Redan in the Ballarat Football League.
At least I think it is a grass parrot. Could be a rosella or a lorikeet, I am sure someone will let me know.
Learmonth, brother of former Kyabram president Peter, was coaching against his former team — Darley — when he had an unexpected assistant land on his shoulder to offer a word of advice.
He was totally unaware of the native Australian bird’s presence, but his team — the Redan Lions — went on to win by 18 points.
Learmonth won the Kyabram seniors best-and-fairest award in his first year at the club way back in 1999 and was runner-up the next year.
Redan sits seventh on the ladder after nine rounds, with five wins, the weekend’s victory a surprise considering they were playing fourth ranked Darley.
Learmonth has a interesting history in football, having started in the sport way back in 1993 as an AFL trainee with Sandringham Dragons.
He was a supplementary player for Collingwood and Carlton between 1992-95 and was a decorated player in the Ovens and Murray League, involved in an O&M team that won several division one country championships.
Post playing he coached at Geelong Grammar, was named Western Region coach of the year in 2008, was assistant coach of the Northern Territory Thunder’s under age teams at the national championships and, while playing at Kyabram, was a part-time recruiting officer for Carlton.
Learmonth also spent a year as the AFL development officer for South Africa.
His role was to not only introduce Aussie Rules, but use the sport to promote healthy lifestyles and engage boys and girls from underprivileged communities to play a new sport to South Africa.
“By the time I left I had developed a strategic plan for the future direction of the organisation and started the employment journey of several young South Africans who are now employed by AFL South Africa — including the general manager and national events and participation manager,” he is quoted as saying in his online employment history profile.
He worked in the Northern Territory as AFL Central Australia general manager, out of Alice Springs, was the operations manager of Ballarat Football Umpires Association and is now the administration and communications manager for Ballarat Turf Club.
