Turner ponders his next chapter

MICHAEL Turner has forecast the end of his longstanding reign as Geelong Falcons talent manager, revealing next year looms as his final season at the club.

Turner, 63, will next season celebrate his 25th year in the role — a landmark he believes shapes as the ideal time to start easing out of full-time footy work by taking up a recruiting role at an AFL club.

“I really enjoy working for the AFL and I love working with the kids, it’s a great job, I’m not a footyhead but I still love football,” Turner said on This Is Your Sporting Life.

“I’ve been doing this (Geelong Falcons) for 24 years, which has been great, because there’s been a lot of changes and a lot of growth and a lot of challenges.

“Next year’s my 25th year. Maybe next year as my 25th year would be a good year to finish — 15 years as a teacher, 15 years as a player, 25 years doing that.

“But in saying that, I don’t want to retire completely. Even though I like surfing and doing things with the grandkids and travelling, and all that sort of stuff, I’d get bored quickly, so I’d still like to be involved in football. Maybe the transition for me is not working full-time running the Geelong Falcons academy … (but) maybe moving into doing some AFL recruiting or something like that.”

Under Turner, the Falcons have proven to be one of the country’s most fertile breeding grounds, producing No.1 draft picks Luke Hodge, Paddy McCartin and this year’s likely top pick Sam Walsh, among a cavalcade of AFL stars.

“What I do is develop talent and you’re looking at that same talent, so I think I’ve got a pretty good eye for looking at talent,” Turner said of why he could work at AFL club level.

“I’d say my transition would be to hopefully work for an AFL club at some stage in the recruiting department.

“Not full-time, but maybe from March through to October/November at the end of the draft and have three months off over the summer, so that’s maybe something I’m pretty interested in.”