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Sport Nation
Former Port player shocked to be sacked by SANFL club
Andrew Slevison • May 15th, 2025 5:16 pm
Jacob Surjan and the North Adelaide Football Club parted ways on Wednesday night.
The Port Adelaide player was surprisingly sacked after coaching 97 games with a record of 53 wins and 44 losses.
The shock move came just six rounds into the 2025 SANFL season with the Roosters sitting sixth on the ladder.
“It always comes as a shock, even when you’re a player and you get delisted or you’re a coach,” Surjan told SEN SA Breakfast.
“The shock part for me is Round 6 is way too early. My reasoning was we had injuries to key players which turned our season to being where it’s at.
“I could see some real growth and forward momentum with the way we were playing, but the club felt like they wanted to move.
“At the end of the day I’m in an out-of-contract year as well and maybe the club wanted to get some fresh air and fresh eyes in which is probably what they need to do.”
Another hard part of coaching in the SANFL is losing star players to the AFL's mid-season draft.
The Roosters have lost the likes of Jacob Bauer (Richmond) and Kelsey Rypstra (Western Bulldogs) - the latter has since returned - in recent mid-season drafts.
“There’s a little part of that in our industry that’s a little bit disappointing,” Surjan added.
“In 2022 Jacob Bauer got drafted but we ended up losing a Grand Final by one point. So you go, ‘Well, if we had Jacob, do we win the game?’. You just don’t know.
“But the opportunity we see for our guys to get to the next level and play AFL, that’s part of the goal. That’s part of my dream for those young men coming through because I got to achieve that.
“You can’t sit here and think about ‘what ifs’, you just reflect on the amazing times I had there and looking forward to the amazing opportunities that will potentially come up.”
Former Brisbane and Power player Sam Mayes, who has acted as Surjan's assistant, has been installed as the interim coach for the remainder of the SANFL season.
Mayes is inexperienced in the coaching caper which suggests to Surjan that it will be a tricky task to improve the Roosters from their 2-4 record.
“It will be tough, ‘Mayesy’ is only six months into his coaching career,” Surjan said further.
“I think he’s going to be a very good coach but he’s raw. He’s going to need help, he’s been thrown into the hot seat way, way too early.
“But that’s choice the club has made and if that’s what they want to live with then that’s fine.”
When asked if a lost connection with the playing group contributed to his sacking, Surjan ensured that this was “just purely a club decision”, and that the relationship he had with them “is really strong”.
“Especially with this group I wouldn’t have thought so,” said Surjan of his former players.
“I had the support of all the playing group and their shock is real.”
During his time with the Roosters, Surjan won the 2018 premiership with the reserves side and guided the seniors to two Grand Finals in 2020 and 2022.
Surjan says he will remain a “lifelong Roosters man” and even after the disappointing decision is still “incredibly humbled and grateful” to be the club’s the third longest serving coach with a winning percentage of 56 per cent.
Image credit: David Mariuz/SANFL
