Weighing up whether he would play on, a nasty shoulder injury suffered in the closing stages of a match simulation earlier this month has ended the playing career of East Geelong coach Ned Aulsebrook.
The 31-year-old has revealed to K rock Football the severity of the injury after being bumped to the same shoulder he underwent surgery on during pre-season last year.
“It just got me in the right spot in some existing hardware that I’d had in the shoulder from a previous surgery, and it acted like a bit of a wood splitter and exploded the collarbone,” Aulsebrook said.
“I pretty much knew (the severity) straight away; there was a big crunch.
“I put on a brave face for the boys for a bit, and then got the X-ray the following day, and that confirmed that, yeah, she was all over, I reckon.
“So, that’ll do me.”
Aulsebrook was confident he still had something to offer as a player in 2026 and is disappointed not to bow out on his terms.
However, he admits his career has been relatively injury-free.
“I have been pretty lucky with injury across the journey,” the two-time Barwon Heads premiership player said. “I haven’t missed many games at all.
“Even with this shoulder injury, it didn’t cost me any games of footy. I sort of always had it injured or operated on at the end of the footy season, and didn’t miss too many games.
“So I feel like I’ve had a pretty good run.”
Aulsebrook is looking forward to coaching from the sidelines, believing it will benefit last year’s runner-up.
“I’ve got really good support and always have,” he said.
“And having Jack McLean come on as a playing assistant probably gives us a more rounded look with me not playing.
“With Jez Ollis playing as well, and you’ve got Wayne (Barrett) and me on the bench, it actually probably gives us a better look as a coaching group.
“I’d love to be playing, selfishly, because the contest is sort of what I pride myself on and what I enjoy the most about footy, but I’m really excited for a different look at it.
“And I think I will learn a lot this year from not playing.”
Aulsebrook has been joined in retirement by Ryan Lempa and Jacob Sobey, with the latter having work commitments in Sydney.
Matt Kasparian (St Albans/Clunes), Will Paulin (Nirranda) and Darcy Martin (St Joseph’s) are the confirmed recruits, with Kasparian to fill the ruck role left vacant by Sobey.
But it’s the players who missed out on a spot in the Eagles’ grand final loss to North Geelong that Aulsebrook believes can help his team be on the podium come mid-September.
“Our points situation allows us to have a few guys who didn’t play in the grand final that are definitely in our best side,” he said.
You look at a Lachie Zimmer; he’s essentially a recruit into that grand final side with our point situation.
“So we didn’t want to recruit too heavily, but we just picked a couple of targets.
Kasper’s (Kasparian) a really good get, and Will Paulin will be really good through the middle and half-forward.
“And the other guys who missed out on points are looking to play a little bit more footy this year as well.”
On the loss to the Magpies in the decider, Aulsebrook is taking a philosophical approach.”
“To be honest, I probably felt more comfortable with the result this year than I did last year,” he said
“You can make all the excuses you want, but North Geelong beat us four times in one season, so clearly they deserve the premiership.
“There were a couple of things that could have gone our way at different stages of that game that might’ve changed the result, but I’m sure that North Geelong would say the same thing.
“So we go back to the drawing board, and we try and tweak a few things and go again.”
X: @krockfootball
