After a period of sustained excellence coaching junior sides to multiple flags, Carri Carter has been called upon to replicate the feat in the top flight next year.
Carter has had the Midas touch with every Moama team she’s coached since arriving at the club in the midst of COVID.
In her five years at Moama Recreation Reserve, she has coached 13-and-under, B-grade and 17-and-under, on top of leading the 15-and-under side in 2025, delivering the club to the promised land across grades in that period.
After winning back-to-back flags in 2017 and 2018, Moama has been pipped at the post in A-grade twice since then, by Echuca United in 2019 and then against Rumbalara in a 2024 grand final thriller.
Before her time in the black and white, Carter coached Strathmerton’s A-grade unit from 2011 to 2014 before taking the reins of Nathalia’s A-grade team.
On top of helming Moama’s A-grade in 2026, she has taken her coaching to greater heights, rejoining the Bendigo Strikers’ development coaching team for a second season while also managing her professional role as Sports Academy Leader at St Joseph’s College.
Carter highlighted how her time leading the fledgling Magpies had helped her evolve her coaching repertoire and is excited to get back to steering the ship at A-grade level.
“I’m really looking forward to it, I’ve been in the junior sector since I’ve been at Moama, and before that, I hadn’t ever coached juniors,” she said.
“So, it’s nice to go back, and I feel like I’ve developed as a coach even more since having the juniors, I’ve probably changed how I approach it.
“It’s been a good little learning curve, and I’m ready to put that back together and work on some development with the kids.
“Moama is pretty successful in the juniors, so we want to be able to keep them, challenge them and push them through the senior grades.
“The more you coach, the more you realise it’s about the relationships and working out each player individually and what they can bring to the team.
“So, it’s not all tactics. It’s about the way that you can build the team and get them to work together.”
Carter emphasised what an honour it is to be trusted with the top job by a club that has adopted her for the better part of a decade.
“It’s a bit of a privilege to be trusted with this goal and succession plan the club has,” she said.
“Although I’m not born and bred from Moama, I feel like it’s now my home club, so, I’m hoping to be able to deliver what they expect of me.
“I feel really fortunate, and it’s nice to give back as well.”
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