By Alen Delic (@alendelic)

It was a promise Dandenong Thunder technical director Stuart Munro made to his wife, which brought the Scottish defender out to Australia in the late 90s.

After a solid career as a player in Europe, Munro has spent the last decade coaching around Australia, and has recently come back to Dandenong Thunder as its technical director.

“It was a tour with Rangers that actually brought me out to Australia, and that’s how I met my wife,” Munro said.

“I always promised my wife that when I retired as a player, we’d emigrate [to Australia].

“We moved here in 1997, and it’s been a great journey ever since.”

Before moving to Australia, Munro made a name for himself as a defender with the Glaswegian club.

In his seven years at Rangers, Munro made 179 first team appearances for the side, and last month was nominated as a potential Hall of Fame inductee.

He was a part of one of the most successful Rangers sides in history during the Graeme Souness reign.

“I’d been there a year and a half, and he [Souness] came in and brought all these high profile players to the club,” Munro said.

“It was the start of a really massive and fantastic period of time in Rangers’ history.”

After his time at Rangers, he signed with Blackburn, but injury hampered his time at the club.

He soon moved to Bristol and made close to 100 appearances for the side. Then, he went back to Scotland.

After spells at Falkirk and St Mirren, he packed his bags and headed down under to fulfil his promise to his wife.

He found himself in Sydney, and spent one final season playing with Sydney United in the old National Soccer League.

Munro then made his way around Australia, coaching at clubs like Gippsland Falcons, Carlton, South Melbourne, and Parramatta Power.

After a successful spell at Oakleigh, Dandenong Thunder came calling.

In 2009, he led the team to the minor premiership and a grand final berth before heading across to A-League side Perth Glory to take up the assistant role.

But Dandenong Thunder was a club dear to his heart, so when the opportunity to return came up last year, Munro took it.

He came back at the end of last season in a caretaker role, leading the team until the end of the season.

“I found the club had been a great club with good people,” Munro said.

“I enjoyed my time so I found it easy to come back.

This year, he has taken up the role of technical director at the club, which involves implementing the national curriculum at all levels of the club.

“It’s a different area of football than I’ve done before,” Munro said.

“I’ve done senior coaching, junior development coaching, but now I’m doing something encompassing everything.”

Munro said his role largely involved working with the coaches at the club, and making sure they knew how to correctly implement the national curriculum.

“Football coaching has come on in huge leaps and bounds in the last five, six years,” he said.

“There’s a lot more coach education in Australia than there ever was before.

“It’s important that coaches stay up to date even at the junior and sub junior levels, and it’s important they have an idea of what they’re doing, they’re organized, and can follow the curricula fairly well.”

The Glasgow Rangers Hall of Fame Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday March 30.