By Nick Creely
The Gippsland Power have announced that Rhett McLennan has been appointed as the senior coach and regional coaching director for their TAC Cup side in 2019.
A veteran of football and coaching, McLennan played 306 games including three senior premierships, and has coached at major country and metropolitan clubs for 14 years.
McLennan has been involved with the Power program for four years as an assistant coach, and has coached the Under 16 Power team for the past two years.
He said he is excited by the opportunity to coach some of the elite talent in the region.
“I’m really looking forward to the challenge” McLennan said.
Having been involved with Gippsland Power now for several years, McLennan knows what it takes to reach the highest level having had pre-seasons with the Brisbane Football Club and the Carlton Football Club.
“(The role) is not new to me as I have been here for four years and coached a lot of these boys in the Under 16 Gippsland Power team over the past two seasons” McLennan said.
“I’m really looking forward to the excitement of getting out there and working closely with the boys at training and helping them reach their goals and dreams.”
Down at Shepley Oval, the Dandenong Stingrays have also changed hands, with long-time assistant coach Nick Cox announced as the new senior coach.
Cox was the front runner to take charge of the Rays after five successful seasons under outgoing coach Craig Black, who has joined Collingwood as a development coach.
On several occasions, Cox has stepped in as coach in Black’s absence to great success, and will have plenty of talent at his disposal when his group returns for the 2019 pre-season, hungry to build on their historic 2018 premiership.
Cox is a highly regarded coach, who is highly respected within local and elite football in the region.
In even more change in 2019, long-time talent manager Mark Wheeler is also on the move, switching across to Sandringham Dragons to take on the top job after more than decade at Shepley Oval. The Stingrays are yet to announce a new talent manager, but are believed to be set to make some announcements in the coming weeks.
The Stingrays have also announced Rye senior coach Josh Moore as an assistant coach for 2019. Stingrays premiership assistant Josh Bourke, a highly touted footy head and coaching prospect, has also departed, taking on the senior coaching role at Sandringham Dragons, alongside Wheeler once again.
