ANAKIE has turned to one of local football’s most successful mentors of the last decade to help appoint its next coach.
Heath Jamieson will play a key role in the search for the replacement for Chris Moore, who stepped down last week after five years in charge, following a request from Roos’ president Heath Menhennet.
“Heath and myself cross paths in our working lives, and he mentioned they might be on the hunt for a new coach,” Jamieson, who coached St Joseph’s to three flags and Queenscliff to one, said.
“I just sat down and had a chat to him about the footy club, and I said let’s see if I can help in any way.
“After a couple of chats, he was pretty keen to see what we could find.”
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Jamieson, who coached Uni Blues to the VAFA Premier Section title in 2019, believes a playing coach would be ideal with the current demographic of the Anakie list.
“They’ve got a young group and a lot of one-point players, (and) that might need someone to play for them straight away and show the younger players how to lead on the ground and that type of stuff,” he said.
“But, we’re definitely not putting all the eggs into the playing-coach basket.
“If there’s a good non-playing coach out there, we’ll have a look at that as well.”
Jamieson said Anakie won’t rush an appointment but are keen to hear from those interested as soon as possible.
“If someone wants to have a crack at it, they probably want to get moving pretty quickly,” he said.
“We would expect that if there’s someone out there who wants to coach, they’d be contacting us to put their hat in the ring.
“With all the salary caps getting reduced next year, players that might want to take a step back with their footy but still play at a reasonable level, we think the job would be a perfect one for a young developing coach or someone who wants to get into coaching.”
Anakie has the longest finals drought of any club in the competition, last reaching the top five in 1998, with its last premiership coming in 1994.
The Roos’ best finish under Moore came in 2017 when they finished with an 8-10 record and finished 7th.
“We’re looking to get someone who wants to get their hands dirty and get the club back to where we want it to be at,” Jamieson said.
“The job’s going to be where a young coach can come in and grow with the football club.
“We’re not asking for a coach to come in and take us to a premiership next year – although that would be great.
“But, we’re willing to work to someone who wants to dig in and have a crack.”
For more information on the Anakie coaching position, email hjamieson2017@gmail.com
Twitter: @tom_king79
