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Chris Taylor has built winners for decades. Australian football is still overlooking him
By Sacha Pisani8 July 2026
Chris Taylor is a bona fide legend of state league football, not only in Victoria but Australia. His record speaks for itself and it goes beyond silverware.
Taylor has won titles with NPL Victoria powerhouses South Melbourne, Dandenong Thunder and his current club Oakleigh Cannons.
The Leicester-born coach guided South to Victoria's inaugural National Premier League trophy in 2014, having claimed an unprecedented treble with Dandenong Thunder in 2012.
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At Oakleigh, he delivered the Championship that had eluded the club and oversaw an unforgettable Australia Cup run in 2022, highlighted by a quarter-final victory over A-League giants Sydney FC.
All of this while working as a project manager on construction sites by day.
Taylor's journey through Victorian football stretches back decades.
Taylor's journey through Victorian football stretches back decades.
Long before the trophies at Thunder, South Melbourne and Oakleigh, he helped resurrect Caroline Springs George Cross.
Taylor spent nine years there as a player after Sunshine City merged with George Cross in the 1980s, before returning as coach when the former National Soccer League club was fighting for their future.
Back when they were based in Sunshine, he led George Cross from the third tier back to Victoria's top flight with consecutive promotions, restoring one of the state's historic clubs to the highest level of local football.
His tenure eventually ended acrimoniously. After keeping George Cross in the top flight on the final day of the 2005 season despite limited resources and a teenage Manny Muscat among his players, Taylor was sacked six games into the following campaign.
Two decades later, he remains in the dugout. The clubs have changed, the players have changed, the game around him has changed but the desire has not.
"Having been involved in the game from a very early age, football, you could say, is in the blood," Taylor told HIGHPRESS.
"The football community is pretty much an extended family, where you bump into good people on a regular basis. Going back to George Cross last week was fantastic, seeing people I hadn't seen for years.
“I guess being with a successful team helps to drive you to keep improving and bring success to the club.”
Success has followed Taylor throughout his career, but longevity has also changed the way he coaches.
Years of navigating semi-professional dressing rooms, difficult moments and the unique demands of state league football have convinced him that more is not always better.
"The longer I've been in the game, the more I've simplified things," he said. "I've now got to the stage where I think you can overcoach and complicate the game plan.
"I'm a big believer in coaching at the level you're at. The NPL is a semi-professional league with most players working during the day.
“There are times when a player has had a bad day at work. Training needs to be competitive and real, but most of all enjoyable.”
That understanding has become particularly important at Oakleigh.
Squad turnover is a reality at Jack Edwards Reserve. Players leave for professional opportunities. Others move between NPL clubs.
New faces arrive every season. Yet the Cannons keep challenging.
Since Taylor took charge, Oakleigh have become one of the most consistent forces in Victorian football, reaching Australia Cup semi-finals, competing for Premierships and finally breaking through for the club's maiden NPL Victoria championship in 2022.
That came by crushing his former side South Melbourne 5-0 in the decider. Two years later, Taylor and Oakleigh added another championship to go with their 2021 premiership.
Taylor believes the secret lies in something that cannot be replaced during a transfer window.
Culture.
"The culture and standards are set and driven from within the playing group and coaching staff," he said. "The turnover of players in some ways promotes and invigorates the playing group and promotes the standards from within.
“We have been fortunate that some of the turnover in numbers are players moving up to the A-League, which shows there is a pathway and encourages talented players to come to Oakleigh for their development.”
Recruitment has become another cornerstone of Oakleigh's sustained success.
Taylor, together with the network around him, continually searches locally and interstate for players capable of improving the Cannons. We have seen it this season with Lebib Lebib from Western Australia, and others before him.
But talent alone is not enough.
"The biggest factor in signing any player is assessing their character to see just how they will fit in the Oakleigh culture," Taylor said.
"Give me a good person with good character over a talented, wayward individual."
That philosophy helps explain how Oakleigh have repeatedly absorbed significant changes without disappearing from contention.
The Cannons had been close before Taylor arrived. They had challenged for silverware, produced talented teams and established themselves among Victoria's leading clubs.
But they had never won the championship.
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Taylor did not believe Oakleigh needed to be rebuilt. They needed to find the final few percentages.
"Oakleigh are a fantastic club with outstanding people throughout the club," he said. "All the foundations were in place, so it was just a case of tweaking a few things and re-evaluating standards which everyone bought into.
"The biggest challenge each season is to maintain those standards and strive to continually improve.
“Some will go on the journey, whilst others will fall by the wayside.”
He added: "The other factor is having good people around you that buy into your ways and culture. At Oakleigh we are blessed to have the likes of Bojo, Smarty, Miggsy, Johnny & Aki, all who contribute in a big way to the success at Oakleigh."
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Many have come and gone during Taylor's time at Oakleigh. The Cannons have remained. So has their coach.
Taylor's achievements have not gone unnoticed beyond the state league game.
He has attracted interest from Wellington Phoenix and Newcastle Jets in recent years. There were calls from the A-League pair, but it "didn't make sense" for the legendary figure.
He has attracted interest from Wellington Phoenix and Newcastle Jets in recent years. There were calls from the A-League pair, but it "didn't make sense" for the legendary figure.
Not coaching in the A-League, however, remains one of the great curiosities of modern Australian football, especially on the back of his exploits with the Thunder, South and Oakleigh.
At a time when the country continues to debate coaching pathways and opportunities for Australian coaches, one of the most decorated figures outside the professional game has never been given his proper chance at the highest domestic level.
Different clubs, different generations and different dressing rooms. Through it all, Taylor has found ways to win with all of them. He also came within a penalty kick of leading Melbourne Knights to a Victorian Premier League crown.
Perhaps the most impressive part of his record is not the trophies themselves, though. It is that he keeps rebuilding, adapting and challenging again while managing construction sites by day and leading training sessions at night. Then on weekends, there is another game to win.
More than two decades after helping drag George Cross back through the divisions, Taylor is still doing what he has always done:
Building football teams and winning.
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