They helped end Oak Flats' premiership drought. Now, Nathan Minutillo and Fabian Cappetta hope to bring that magic touch to their next challenge.
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It has been a week since the coaches guided the Falcons to District League premiership glory. When the full-time siren sounded and Oak Flats had wrapped up a 3-0 win over Unanderra in last Saturday's grand final, Minutillo and Cappetta had fulfilled a two-year promise of delivering the club a title.
In fact, the cousins went one better, also clinching the Premier's Trophy last month.
But the title double also signals the end of an era, with Minutillo and Cappetta to coach Corrimal's Illawarra Premier League team in 2021. They have big shoes to fill, replacing 2019 premiership-winning coach Rob Jonovski who is off to fellow IPL club Coniston. But Minutillo says they can't wait for the new challenge.
"I got a call from Claude [Guido], the Corrimal president, and he explained the situation for next year with 'Rodger' leaving. He just asked if we'd like to come in and have a talk about it and see what we thought," Minutillo said.
"For us, it was really about the opportunity to go to a higher level. Obviously it would have been good if promotion was on the table for us to stay with Oak Flats, but we wanted to keep moving forward and test ourselves at the next level.
"I think if you look back, they got promoted maybe five years ago. The first couple of years were mainly about survival, then they started to build a winning culture there. Obviously at the end of 2019, they were on a pretty big high, winning the grand final. So the culture is just building and building. It's exciting times for the club and we're excited to be part of it.
"There's no expectations from the club at the moment. But Fabian and I have expectations of ourselves. We'll sit down as a playing group and as a coaching staff to determine our goals for next year. But we're excited to get started."
Minutillo and Cappetta are keen to forge their own chapter in Corrimal's history. They've already began work shaping their 2021 squad, while pre-season training begins next week.
The first step was retaining a bulk of Rangers talent, led by Ricky Goodchild, Paul Guido, Dean Pender and Matthew Galanti.
Julian Minutillo and Aden Wade are also coming over from Oak Flats, while their recruits secured include former Wollongong Olympic player Peter Prandalos, and Port Kembla's Nathan Belsito and Fabian Iacovelli.
They have also picked up Cringila's Toby Norval - the runner-up for the 2020 George Naylor Medal as the Illawarra Premier League's player of the year.
"I think people are pretty surprised about that one, he's an exceptional player," Nathan Minutillo said.
"In terms of trying to get the squad together, that's been going on pretty much as soon as we accepted the job because there was an understanding that there would be a lot of player movement with people moving on and so forth. We're pretty happy with how the squad is coming along and we go back to training pretty much next week. The way we see it, the season has been extended and we're just keeping people ticking over so we don't have to do all of the hard yards in January.
"The players we've brought in, Fabian and I have had previous experience with, either playing with them or personal relationships. We feel that we're building a new team pretty much from scratch and we've brought in players that we trust. They're our players that we've brought to the club. They're wanting to come because of us."
That word, trust, is a big part of Minutillo and Cappetta's coaching style.
It is a unique set up seeing two cousins in the head coach role, but Minutillo believes the duo complement each other.
"We're pretty similar. Our families are fairly close so we've grown up around each other a lot, playing around each other. Once upon a time, we played at Wollongong Olympic together," Minutillo said.
"We bounce off each other pretty well. Some people might have seen us argue before, but it's just the relationship that we have. But we're pretty similar and get along on the same page. In saying that, the players we bring in from Oak Flats, because we have a prior relationship with them and understand their knowledge of the game, we bounce a lot of ideas off them. We instill a lot of trust in the players."
And while it's an exciting new adventure in 2021, it's also bittersweet for Minutillo and Cappetta - and the Falcons club.
The pair took over the head coach role after Oak Flats missed the District League finals in 2018.
The team showed great improvement last year, finishing the regular season in third spot before charging their way into the grand final. Unfortunately for them, they fell 2-1 to a strong Bellambi outfit. And while the Rosellas enjoyed an IPL promotion, Minutillo and Cappetta went back to the drawing board.
It was a move that paid dividends as the Falcons returned to the field hungry in 2020. And while promotion wasn't on offer due to the shortened season, Oak Flats enjoyed a near flawless campaign, only dropping one game on their way to claiming the District League premier's trophy.
For the second year in a row, the Falcons were able to book their spot on grand final day. But there was redemption in 2020. Despite having less attacking chances than opponents Unanderra, Daniel Munilla, substitute Julian Minutillo and Bojan Caric all scored goals to guide their side to this year's premiership.
After the grand final win, Minutillo described it as the "perfect send off" for himself and Cappetta. He is happy to leave the Oak Flat Falcons on a high note.
"Two years ago when we started at the club, we promised that we would bring success there. We're happy to deliver that and leave the club in a good place," he said.
"I think nearly the whole team has re-signed so they're creating a winning culture which I hope continues on into next year, and the years to come.
"We're very proud of what we've been able to do and the club is heading in the right direction."
And as the cousins depart, the Mercury understands that Mark Vinton will take over as the Falcons' District League head coach in 2021. Mark's son Jarryd Vinton captained the side to this year's title double.
Minutillo hopes to see Oak Flats one day join Corrimal in the Illawarra Premier League. Who knows, maybe even as early as 2022?
"I'd love that, it would be great to see," he said.
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
