After two premierships in three seasons as an assistant or head coach at Horsham, Roberts said he was looking forward to taking a break from coaching.

"I've got a young family, and coaching you spend a fair bit of the off-season in meetings and that sort of thing, then you've got pre-season, so at the moment I just want to play and focus on that," Roberts said.

"Getting back to the district league was also important - I just want to get back and play for a year, and see what I want to do after that."

The two-time Dellar medallist said it was a difficult decision to leave the Demons.

"(After the 2019 season) I didn't know what I wanted to do to be honest - I thought about taking a couple of months off and getting away from it," Roberts said.

"But after some phone calls, I thought I had to make a decision. For me mentally and for the clubs, so they can go on with their recruiting.

"Horsham are a great club, so it was a very hard decision for me. I really enjoyed my time there.

"But in the end, I had to make a decision. It was good to do that relatively quickly, and now I can focus on getting around my new teammates and getting myself ready for a big pre-season."

Kalkee have also signed former Horsham and Dimboola player Andrew Seers, as the club hope to improve upon its seventh-place finish in 2019.

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"I'm confident with the way they are recruiting, they're going about it the right way," Roberts said.

"They have a good young group, and are just topping up with some key players. Hopefully there are a few more signings soon, and we can just keep building on a good list."

Roberts said reuniting with former Horsham teammate Simon Hobbs, and playing under famed Wimmera coach Stuart Farr was another appealing aspect.

"With Stuart, he's obviously had a great coaching career. You want the ultimate success, and with him he's clearly not just here to fill in a year," Roberts said.

"As you get older as a player, you really want to be pushing towards premierships, and focusing on team success. I'm sure that's the way he wants to go.

"And I think if I do want to step back into a coaching role one day, he'll be a great person to learn a few things off as well."

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