The Northern FL coaches night was held on Monday 18 March at Visy Park. This was the first major event the league has hosted at the Carlton Football Club and marks the beginning of a new era of collaboration between the community football league and The Club in supporting the development of grass roots football.

The night saw just under 300 coaches assemble in the main player warm up area where league officials, including CEO Jeremy Bourke, welcomed the coaches and provided an overview of what the night was intending to achieve. The coaches then broke off into different groups, taking in different presentations related to their specific age groups and areas of responsibility at their clubs.

The senior coaches session was held in the main lecture theatre and covered key rule changes, umpiring directives, code of conduct education and representative football for season 2013. The junior coaches session took in similar content as it related to junior football with a focus on the AFL Victoria Under 14 and 15 Metropolitan Junior Championships. The third session saw AFL Victoria take the junior club coaching coordinators into the Carlton Café where representatives from AFL Victoria, Phiv Demetriou and Steve Teakel, spoke to the group about their role in mentoring and educating junior coaches at their clubs.

The night was well received by all in attendance and The Club was proud to partner with the Northern FL and kick start the year with a key educational outcome in supporting the development of junior and senior coaches throughout the league.