Geelong great Steve Johnson has been appointed as coach of GFNL club Newtown & Chilwell.
The triple-premiership Cat and three-time All-Australian signed a two-year deal on Sunday afternoon to take charge of the Eagles, replacing the long-serving Damien McMahon.
Johnson, who played 253 games with Geelong before finishing his career with 40 games at the GWS Giants, has spent the past two seasons with Ovens and Murray club Yarrawonga.
“It’s always a club I’ve gone and supported, even when I was playing footy at Geelong,” Johnson said.
“It was a great club to go and watch, and there’s some great people behind it.
“Whilst they haven’t had success over the past 35 years at senior level, I’m hoping that can change once I can get in there and get to work.”
The 2007 Norm Smith medalist says discussions about him taking the role have been ongoing for nearly a month.
“Once they knew the position was opening up, they wanted to move pretty quickly so that they could retain as many players as possible and get organised in an off-field sense,” Johnson said.
“It’s all come along pretty quickly, and over the last two weeks, it was looking more likely than not that it would be the job I would take.
Johnson guided Yarrawonga to the 2023 premiership before falling to Wangaratta Rovers by three points in last week’s decider.
He’s looking forward to working with a talented young list after Newtown & Chilwell won its third consecutive AFL Barwon Division 1 under-18 premiership in a thriller against St Joseph’s on Friday.
“They’ve had a lot of success at junior level over a number of years,” Johnson said.
“And one thing that was certainly enticing was looking at the list and seeing there was real room for improvement there.
“Hopefully, we can add a few players to that and compete towards the business end of the season.”
Drafted by Geelong in 2001, Johnson is looking forward to moving back to the city he lived in for 14 years before heading to Giants.
“I’m really excited to be moving back to Geelong; we loved living there,” Johnson said.
“It’s a great spot to bring up a young family, so I’m excited to get back amongst the town.”
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