WHEN former Richmond defender Will Thursfield took on the role as Leongatha coach late last year, he hoped his new gig would be far less challenging than trying to stop star forwards like Lance Franklin or Tom Hawkins in the AFL. However, the 26-year-old's first season in charge of the Parrots has been anything but easy.

Thursfield and another of Leongatha's gun recruits from Richmond, David Gourdis, have both spent a long period on the sidelines after hamstring tears during a home game against Maffra in early July. Gourdis should recover to take part in the Parrots' finals campaign, which begins next Saturday; Thursfield won't play again until 2013.

But their problems pale into insignificance compared with the plight of the club's reigning best and fairest, Beau Vernon, who was left a quadriplegic after suffering a neck injury in a match in late June.

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''A lot has happened, and I suppose there's nothing you can do about it,'' Thursfield said before the Parrots' round-16 clash with Bairnsdale. ''I just hope it eases up in the years to come.''

Thursfield could still be running around in the AFL. He overcame some injury problems and poor form to feature in the last nine games of Richmond's 2011 campaign, and he was offered a new contract for this season. But after 77 games for the Tigers over seven years, he decided it was time to do something else.

''I just lost the spark a bit,'' Thursfield said. ''I was always injured and I just wanted to enjoy footy again. Also, my old man's a landscaper and I'd been doing a lot of work with him on days off and in the off-season. The business was growing, so I was keen to jump on board with him.''

The connection between Richmond and Leongatha, which resulted in Thursfield continuing his footy career in Gippsland, started when former Footscray forward Brian Royal coached the Parrots to a premiership in 1995, then got a job as an assistant coach with the Tigers.

Around the same time, one of Leongatha's favourite sons, Billy Clarke, found he required a heart transplant. Clarke, who had played alongside Royal in the '95 grand final win, had to move to Melbourne so he could be monitored. Royal invited him to Richmond, where he worked as a property steward. Royal moved on after a couple of seasons, but Clarke stayed at Punt Road until he returned to Leongatha as reserves coach in 2009. He is now the Parrots' football director.

''Billy told us during the season that he thought Will was looking to get out of the AFL, so we had a chat to him and he seemed quite keen,'' said Leongatha vice-president Terry Ginnane. ''All of a sudden he was back in Richmond's seniors, so we started looking elsewhere. Then Billy rang one day and said Will wanted to know if we were still interested. We followed it up and away we went.''

Having grown up in Melbourne, Thursfield ''always wanted to play country footy at some point''. And although the two-hour drives from the big smoke to Leongatha for training, and the trips of up to four hours for matches at far-flung Gippsland centres such as Sale and Maffra, have worn him down at times, he has no regrets about signing a two-year deal with the club.

During the build-up to the season he helped lure Gourdis and Tas Clingan, who was on Richmond's rookie list in 2007, to Leongatha.

''When I first met Will down at the Tigers he was pretty quiet and enjoyed having a joke around, so I never thought I'd see him in a coaching role,'' said Clingan, who had been playing back at his home club, Wangaratta Rovers. ''But he's learning how to give the boys a bit of stick when he has to.''

Leongatha's high-profile recruiting drive meant the Parrots, who lost the Gippsland league elimination final in 2010 and 2011, began their campaign aiming to win their first senior premiership since 2001.

The early rounds went to plan, as Thursfield's men warmed to his encouraging coaching style and won their first eight games, including 100-point wins over lowly Bairnsdale and Moe and the club's first away victory against Maffra since 1999.

The Parrots suffered their first loss when they succumbed to top side Sale in round nine. A week later tragedy struck when Vernon, the son of former Richmond player Daryl Vernon, was injured in the last quarter of the clash with Wonthaggi Power. Everyone at the ground knew the 23-year-old's health was in grave danger when the game was halted and the air ambulance called. In the following week, Thursfield and his teammates, a group that includes Beau's brother Zak, learnt that only a miracle will allow him to walk again.

''It knocked everyone around and it knocked me around,'' Thursfield said. ''I gave the players the option that if they didn't want to play any more that was fine. I didn't feel like playing myself.

''But then you think that these things rarely ever happen, and you get so much joy out of playing, so you just want to go out there and have fun again. And that's what Beau wants us to do. He's just so positive that it has helped make the club stronger and tighter.'' Thursfield has marvelled at the way people have rallied to support Vernon. There have been countless donations to the Beau Vernon Appeal, set up soon after the accident. Morwell footy club's decision to hand over its entire gate takings when it hosted Leongatha last month is just one example. Vernon has his sights on being well enough to attend the Gippsland league grand final if Leongatha makes it. ''So there is a fair bit of extra motivation for our boys to perform well in the finals,'' Ginnane said.

Thursfield is just happy to be involved in a finals campaign. ''I never got to be part of a final in seven years at Richmond,'' he said. ''So it's very exciting.''

By Adam McNicol

Article first appeared The Sunday Age, August 26, 2012