NORTH Central Football League premier St Arnaud is on the hunt for a new senior coach as the club looks to continue its on-field success story.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
James McNamee coached the Saints to an emphatic minor premiership after the home-and-away season this year, before leading the club to a tight premiership triumph against 2014 bridesmaid Charlton.
McNamee will step aside from the role in 2016 due to work commitments in Alice Springs.
The club is expecting him to play up to 10 home-and-away matches.
The 2015 coach will travel from the Northern Territory during school holidays and other breaks to play alongside his team-mates in their quest for back-to-back flags.
Saints’ director of football Stewart Egan told the Mail-Times the club was in the process of talking with potential candidates for the new coaching position.
“We’ve got a couple of blokes we’re about to have a chat to,” he said.
“But we’re looking around because the guys you talk to aren’t always going to take the job on.”
Egan said with the job of coaching the reigning premiers should not be a difficult position to fill, but added sometimes to pressure of continuing the success meant potential coaches preferred to look elsewhere.
“It’s going to be pretty easy job because James is staying on as a player,” he said.
“You never know. Some people might shy away from it because they’d rather go to a club that’s on the up.”
Egan said ideally, the club would pick someone who had a proven track record as a player.
“We want someone who’s a proven footballer, up and about and high quality,” he said.
“Someone who is a very good leader as well.
“The beauty of the club is whoever takes the job on has a very good support staff behind them.”
The club has not been approached by a large number of keen coaches, but Egan said the Saints are in no rush to hire someone, saying there was potential for the position to be filled internally.
“We haven’t really pushed it out there too much,” he said.
“We’ll see where the guys we’re going to speak to are at and if they shy away from it we’ll push a bit harder.
“There’s one or two current players who have shown some interest and that’s why there’s no major concern because we’re happy for them to step up.”