OpinionJuly 18, 2026 — 5:30amShortly after Jeromey Webberley took on the historic role as Tasmania’s first VFL coach, club boss Brendon Gale mentioned the prospect of Matthew Knights as a potential assistant to him.“You mean the Matthew Knights?” Webberley asked before responding enthusiastically.Matthew Knights does his beloved coffee run with the Tasmania Devils.Tasmania Football Club/Sam DriessenAnd so, as the highly credentialled cohort of his supporters cautiously agree, the full circle of Knights’ professional and private rehabilitation was completed. It was a journey punctuated with moments of darkness towards the end of Knights’ time at West Coast and upon his return home to Geelong.That was in the winter of 2024 when his beloved game briefly seemed lost to Knights as he battled through personal issues and the unfortunate consequences of living apart from his family for the best part of three seasons.Months of strong support from family and close friends followed, along with varying degrees of encouragement and practical help from the three club chiefs who had witnessed at close hand Knights’ prodigious ability to connect with young players.Longtime West Coast CEO Trevor Nisbett, who with Adam Simpson had lured Knights from Geelong in late 2021, was determined that Knights not be lost to the game. He voiced his concerns to Cats boss Steve Hocking and Gale and addressed Knights’ plight with AFL CEO Andrew Dillon.Knights in the Devils’ VFL huddle. Andrew Wiseman/Tasmania Football ClubAll played various roles in helping Knights. Hocking, who was also navigating Tanner Bruhn’s highly sensitive one-year exile from the game and Bailey Smith’s tumultuous debut season at Kardinia Park, quietly provided contact hours throughout the 2025 season for the longtime Cats VFL and assistant coach. All the while, Hocking remained in contact with Gale, Knights’ longtime teammate and friend from their Punt Road years.The Geelong boss, noting Knights’ determination, also paid tribute to his club’s head of development Nigel Lappin and player development manager Mark Worthington who worked closely with Knights. Dillon played down his contribution but agreed that having Knights back in the club system was a great result for the game.In December last year the Tasmania Devils appointed Knights as their inaugural academy development coach, with Gale securing the final piece: a full-time role with the fledgling club, which included the VFL coaching role as well.Knights, who was contacted for this story, has thrown himself into both the football roles and the Tasmanian lifestyle in Hobart from his beloved morning coffees to the early morning swims, joining Gale at Taroona Beach along the Derwent River estuary.In February, Knights joined his one-time vice captain Wayne Campbell in Sydney to pick his brains about the Swans’ $4 million academy that Campbell now oversees. The pair also toured the highly rated Panthers’ NRL version out at Penrith.“He’s a natural,” observed Gale. “And he’s also settled into Tasmanian life superbly. He’s become a fixture at the local cafes, he’s fighting fit and out swimming in the ocean most mornings.”Knights also returns frequently to Geelong to spend time with his family. He headed there this weekend after spending the week at the under-16 championships on the Gold Coast. His years of experience with the Geelong system and lifestyle have proved invaluable for the Devils as they build their football club from scratch in a relatively small community.Tasmania’s academy remains very much a work in progress, currently made up of 24 elite teenagers – 12 boys and 12 girls – in a joint venture with AFL Tasmania and also involving a new agreement with Hutchins School in Hobart. Ultimately, the program, which is run around the state, will seek to attract and develop Tasmania’s best young talent.Knights during his time as Essendon coach. Sebastian CostanzoKnights’ role with the Devils’ VFL team is coaching the coaches, offering match-day insights from the back of the coaches’ box. The club has been embraced across the state, drawing record home attendances and currently sits seventh in the 22-team competition with eight wins and a draw from 14 games.Knights, now 55, boasts an intriguing football story. He played almost 300 games with Richmond, the team he captained for five years, winning two Jack Dyer Medals and an All-Australian blazer during that club’s long premiership drought.His lengthy coaching career has been beset by sliding-door moments, most notably winning the Essendon coaching job immediately following Kevin Sheedy’s 27-year reign. Looking back, it was an extraordinarily challenging assignment for a young coach in his mid-30s after only a handful of seasons coaching in the SANFL and the Bendigo Bombers in the VFL. In 2009, his second season, he took the Bombers to the finals.Sacked after three seasons – observers at the time pointed to his empathy and close relationships with his younger players and more difficult issues with older ones – and replaced by James Hird, Knights joined the Cats in 2012 where he spent a decade in various roles, including a VFL premiership under his senior stewardship and the midfield coaching role under Chris Scott.Knights was invited to join Tasmania by his old Richmond teammate Brendon Gale.Andrew Wiseman/Tasmania Football ClubNisbett and Adam Simpson lured him to West Coast on the eve of the 2022 season, seeking Knights’ well-known reputation for working with younger players and also hoping for some invaluable intellectual property from the Cattery. Jarrad Schofield came the same year from Port Adelaide for similar reasons.But Knights’ time at the Eagles, where he lived in a one-bedroom apartment while his family remained in Geelong, was difficult and presents another cautionary tale in a national competition where too many coaches and officials move away from their families. Sometimes it is simply too much to ask partners and children to transform their lives in exchange for a job with no long-term security, and often it involves financial challenges, as the Giants have found given Sydney’s higher cost of living.Over his two-and-a-half seasons at the Eagles, Knights worked under Simpson as midfield and then forwards coach. His skills were less in laptop coding and more in one-on-one communication during a dismal period for the Eagles.Knights returned home to Geelong around the time Simpson was sacked. Although his career had reached a low point, Nisbett still lauds the manner in which he worked to lift the spirits of West Coast’s younger brigade as they encountered brutal losses on a weekly basis.Gale, like Hocking, placed most of the credit with Knights for turning his circumstances around. That his restoration has taken him to Hobart developing foundational players and local coaches for the AFL’s 19th team was, said Gale, a pivotal win for the Devils.“He’s brought exactly the kind of energy and expertise we hoped for when we brought him to Tasmania,” the CEO said.“Watching him work around our VFL team and connect with our academy kids and their families over these past months, you can see how much he loves the teaching side of the game. We’re lucky to have him.”Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.Caroline Wilson is a Walkley award-winning columnist and former chief football writer for The Age.Connect via email.From our partners